The Legend of the Hidden Leaf
by abngg
Summary: Hiruzen decides to tell Naruto the entire truth after being put in a difficult spot. Naruto becomes a prodigy that rivals both Kakashi and Itachi as children while under the care of the Uchiha and Hyuga Clan. ProdigyNaruto FemaleSasuke SensorTypeNaruto FuinjutsuNaruto No Harem but will be involved with multiple girls. AliveUchihaClan GenjutsuNaruto
1. The Birth, The Truth, The Memories

**The Legend of the Hidden Leaf**

There in the hospital sat 5-year old Naruto Uzumaki and Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi who began to wonder where he went wrong.

' _Was it when I promised Minato he'd always be watched over and treated as a hero… or was it when I allowed Minato to use that jutsu instead of doing it myself.'_ Hiruzen pondered sadly with his gaze on the boy that considered him a grandfather.

Naruto always received glares and eyes that held nothing but hatred towards him for what he contained, but never had Hiruzen thought that Naruto would have an attempt on his life. Not only was Hiruzen surprised that day that his own ANBU were sent on a mission that he hadn't assigned them himself but then he felt that malevolent chakra.

 **Flashback – 3 days ago**

A hooded figure stalked his target, the Nine-Tails jinchuriki Naruto Uzumaki, he was given a mission stating to get rid of his target as quickly as possible. As soon as his target took a shortcut to get home he cut him off in an alley where he began his assault.

' _Something's wrong, I don't know why but I have a bad feeling'_ Naruto thought before making his way back to the main roads of the village to be out in the open before being cut off by a cloaked figure.

He was pretty tall; with shades on as well was blue mark on the right side of his mouth. He lifted his hand towards Naruto and his target was immediately swarmed by what appeared to be hundreds upon hundreds insects.

Naruto immediately began to panic, not knowing how to fend off all of these insects; he was soon overpowered by them and forced to the ground where he felt a strange new feeling.

' _Is this how it feels right before you die?'_ Naruto thought to himself tiredly before he realized what he just said. _'Wait! I can't die yet!'_ Naruto thought before unconsciously drawing forth the Nine-Tails chakra.

Potent red chakra began to come off of Naruto's body in folds before his appearance became more feral. Naruto was no longer seeing the cloaked figure in front of him; all he saw was red and felt the negative emotions in front of his new target flickering from hate to fear.

With one loud roar Naruto sliced through the air between them with the malevolent chakra.

The cloaked figure looked at the boy in a confused fear until the red chakra blended into the air and traveled to him cutting straight through him and shredding him into four pieces.

Seeing he got rid of his target the chakra began to wear off and Naruto came face to face with what he had just done before he was flanked by the Hokage and his personal ANBU squadron. Beginning to panic again his heart went into overdrive from the previous event that occurred before Naruto passed out from all the stress.

 **End Flashback –**

Naruto began to stir in the bed before waking up. As soon as his eyes opened he noticed he was in the hospital, it was his first time ever being there seeing that he's never been sick in his life.

Naruto saw the Hokage seated on the other side of the room and felt the worried expressions coming from four different areas outside of the room.

"H- Hey Grandpa." Naruto said loud enough for the Hokage to hear.

"Naruto my boy are you feeling alright?" Hiruzen asked with a worried expression

"I'm feeling better" Naruto replied before looking out of the window "You can tell them to come out now Grandpa, it gets kind of weird when I can't exactly see them" Naruto informed him

Hiruzen was taken aback when Naruto, a 5-year old child, informed him to allow his personal ANBU squad to enter the hospital room. "Naruto, what are you talking about?" Hiruzen asked feigning ignorance to see if Naruto truly knew what he was talking about.

"The ANBU, I could feel them outside of the room." Naruto replied before closing his eyes to truly focus "There are two of them not too far to the right and the other two are behind the hospital, I think their all pretty worried about me so I'd like for them to know that I'm alright."

' _Great Deities he's a natural-born sensory type ninja, and he possesses Lady Mito's same sensory skills of emotions'_ Hiruzen thought before signaling the ANBU to enter the room.

One by one they filed into the room, a dog-masked ANBU with gravity defying spiky silver hair. He was followed by a feminine ANBU that was wearing a cat mask with long purple hair. Then entered a bear-masked ANBU member who had short brown hair, alongside a tiger-masked ANBU member with long brown hair that he kept up in a pony-tail.

Naruto noticed that all of their moods began to brighten slowly at seeing the boy awake and feeling alright. Naruto knew however that he was about to be questioned seriously so he dealt the first question to his leader.

"Hey Grandpa Sarutobi… was my dream a dream? Or did what happen in the alley really happen?" Naruto asked timidly

Exhaling aloud to soothe himself before answering Hiruzen confirmed Naruto that it truly occurred although he wasn't to be held responsible for defending himself.

"That's what I thought, but hey what was that chakra that I used? All the chakra I see is a light blue or light green color… why was mine red?" Naruto asked still scared of what occurred in his _dream_.

"I'll need all of you to leave this room except Inu and Neko" Hiruzen informed his ANBU deciding he would keep his promise to Minato another way.

After the other two ANBU dispersed from the room Hiruzen signaled for the other two to remove their masks which they hesitantly did.

"What I am about to inform you Naruto is an S-Rank secret that is highly punishable. The story that was told of the Fourth Hokage killing the Nine-Tailed Fox was a lie to protect you. The Fourth wasn't able to kill the fox but seal it into a newborn child, I'm pretty sure you know who that child is Naruto." Naruto was about to question why he was chosen until Hiruzen raised a hand to stop him "Please allow me to finish Naruto, you aren't the only one I'm disclosing S-Rank secrets to" Hiruzen informed which raised eyebrows on both Kakashi and Yugao's faces "The Fourth chose to seal the Nine-Tailed beast into you because he couldn't find anyone better to use the sealing on than his own child." He finished

' _Sensei's son? But they told everyone that Lady Kushina died before she even gave birth.'_ Kakashi thought before looking at Naruto's face and piecing the puzzle together

' _Kushina-Sensei's son, but why would they lie and say he died in her womb?'_ Yugao thought to herself

Both Minato and Kushina were senseis before Minato was named Fourth Hokage, Minato taught Kakashi Hatake, Obito Uchiha, and Rin Nohara, the latter two who both passed away in the Third Great Ninja World. Kushina went on to apprentice Yugao Uzuki as they were both sensory type and sword using kunoichi, she even went on to teach Yugao several sealing jutsu.

' _My father, was the Fourth Hokage, the same man who sealed the Nine-Tails inside of me?'_ Naruto thought as he felt as if his whole was crashing down, throughout his thinking Naruto was no longer breathing still taking in what he was told. Taking in a sharp breath Naruto couldn't stop the tears from falling but he was surprised by what happened next.

Yugao, or Neko in her ANBU service, approached Naruto and began to hug him and whisper words of comfort like "It's ok now" and "You won't ever be alone again" to which he replied by only sobbing out loud.

Kakashi looked at his commander with a look that practically demanded an explanation.

"I apologize to all three of you for lying to you about your loved ones; I merely believed that if I handled things this way it could all play out in the end. I intended on informing Naruto on his parentage when he made chunin or I believed he was mature enough, I understand if you all never forgive me." Hiruzen announced only to be hugged by Naruto

"Thank you for telling me Grandpa, it was the one thing I truly wanted to know, I know it must've been hard to make a decision at all." Naruto said

Hiruzen was at a loss for words and merely hugged the boy before shedding a few tears of his own.

"Naruto, do you still wish to become a ninja?" Hiruzen asked hoping everything he had told him didn't sway the boy

"Yeah I do want to become a ninja, and then I'm going to become the Sixth Hokage y'know!" Naruto exclaimed which raised the Yugao's eyebrows at hearing her sensei's verbal tic.

Yugao knew it was against protocol to show emotion while in uniform but she had a hard time holding back the tears while covering her mouth to prevent any crying-like noises from escaping. Although a pat on the shoulder from Kakashi and a sentimental look from her leader let her know it was okay for her to lower the walls this time.

"Why would you want to be Sixth Hokage and not the Fifth Naruto?" Hiruzen asked

"Well no offense but you're getting pretty old Grandpa Sarutobi. By the time you give up your seat I'd like to think I'd probably still be young maybe a chunin at most." Naruto replied which drew chuckles from everyone within the room

"Fair enough my boy. You will be joining the academy in a year however we will begin your training as soon as you're ready, how does that sound?" Hiruzen asked

"I'm ready right now y'know! Who's going to be my sensei?" Naruto asked

Hiruzen then took on a pondering look wondering who he could assign as his surrogate grandson's teacher "Hmm, I think I have two people in mind, which is if they don't mind giving up a bit of their free time." Hiruzen said with his eyes on his two ANBU operatives in the room

"You want us to teach sensei's son?" Kakashi asked

"Well I can't quite think of anyone else in the village that would be as good enough for the boy as you two, but if you do take on this responsibility it would have to be in your free time off of ANBU and in privacy." Hiruzen informed them

"Without a doubt, whenever I have free time I'll spend it training or relaxing with Naruto" Yugao replied quickly once again hugging Naruto

Kakashi took another look at Naruto again and began to mentally berate himself once more for not noticing how this child was his sensei's son. "I'd honestly love to teach Naruto here during my free time, I feel although it'd help the both of us." He replied

"Very well then, in one year's time Naruto will be enrolled into the academy, Kakashi Hatake and Yugao Uzuki, with as much free time as you two can I'd like for young Naruto here to be ran up to speed on the basics." Hiruzen said

"Right Lord Hokage!" They both replied now standing at ease

 **One Year Later –**

Here we find Naruto walking through one of the many forests within the Hidden Leaf village. He would be joining the academy in two days and wanted sometime to himself to relax both his body and mind. Walking around aimlessly he stumbled upon what appeared to be a destroyed house.

' _Hm. Why would somebody build a house way out here? It's nowhere close to the village.'_ Naruto thought before being interrupted

' _ **Perhaps whoever built the house held something of high value that they didn't want falling into the hands of someone untrustworthy, perhaps you should go take a look boy'**_ **The voice in his head spoke**

Immediately after Naruto passed out after the assassination attempt he unconsciously confronted the Nine-Tailed Fox that he houses within his body. The fox was surprised upon meeting the boy to discover he wasn't intimidated by his might. In all actuality, Naruto thought it was another one of those crazy dreams he had after eating sweets right before going to bed; I mean who meets a fox the size of a mountain inside of a sewer?

After talking to the entity for what seemed to be hours and later finding out everything that had occurred and was currently going on was real they both became naturally interested in one another. Kurama, the Nine-Tailed Fox saw great potential in the child while Naruto saw Kurama as a friend he could have for life and was quite happy he met him as early as he did.

' _I don't know Kurama, isn't that trespassing? Plus what if there's somebody in there?'_ Naruto asked his companion

' _ **Now you're merely just making things up boy, that house has been reduced to rubble. There is nobody in there you know as well as I do, that's why neither one of us feel any sort of emotion coming from the inside. You can be quick about it, in and out.'**_ Kurama replied with a tad of annoyance in his voice at the boy's hesitation

After deciding to enter the house through the barely standing door instead of the rather large hole in the wall to hear Kurama scoffing Naruto stumbled across a blade.

' _Hey this is what Kakashi-Sensei showed me that one time, he called it a kunai. Weird though, why does this one have these prongs on the other side?'_ Naruto thought while gently poking the prongs until noticing there was some sort of writing on base of the kunai. _'Hey what's this say? Aw man it's chicken scratch, none of this is even legible.'_ Naruto complained to his tenant feeling the trip inside the abandon house was a waste.

' _ **Wait boy, that kunai appears familiar…'**_ Kurama said before Naruto ditched the weapon _**'Now I remember, that's the same blasted kunai your father used whenever he fought someone.'**_ Kurama replied with a bit of annoyance in his voice at recognizing the weapon

'No way! This is the exact same kunai dad used in his fights? There's no way I'm getting rid of this, let's see if I can find some more out here somewhere.' Naruto said with cheer in his voice

Later on that day Naruto returned to his apartment pretty miffed that he wasn't able to find anymore kunai reminiscent to his father's but all in all he was elated to have one if none.

 **One Year Later – Academy**

Naruto truly proved to be a prodigy with the right training as he took his class by storm to the point to where a few instructors stated he could possibly graduate the same year he entered. Now 7-years old, Naruto was once again held in high regard up to the point that all of the instructors would constantly tell the Hokage he should be a genin already.

Naruto showed prowess in ninjutsu and taijutsu up to where he could keep up with the older kids in both facets easily. He was also aware that his teachers were pushing him to see if he could graduate early, but in all truth Naruto wished to graduate along with kids his own age, that being the reason he's still in his current class. It also doesn't hurt when you have mixed feelings towards a certain girl, Sayuri of the Uchiha clan, daughter to the Konoha Military Police Force (KMPF) Chief.

Naruto didn't know what it was that drew him to her but he knew that something definitely did. He was aware that they were different, but they were also alike, the both of their fathers held high ranking within the village, he even found out that their mothers were best friends as well as rivals before his mother's untimely death.

One thing Naruto didn't know however was that he was once again spacing out while looking at the girl, which didn't go unnoticed by his friend.

"Hey Naruto, eyeing your crush again?" Kiba said aloud while nudging Naruto with his elbow knocking him out of his thoughts

Naruto's first reaction was to look at Kiba with a questioning look, something he learned from Kakashi. Whenever their training was at a standstill Kakashi would pull out an orange book and begin to read it while laughing to himself, naturally Naruto was curious as to what he was reading but Kakashi would throw on a questioning face and tell him that he'd let him in on it later. That also led to Kakashi getting scolded by Yugao a few times, once again to Naruto's confusion.

"Hmm, did you say something Kiba?" Naruto asked feigning ignorance

"I'm just saying if this class was based on Sayuri instead of jutsu and history maybe you'd actually pay attention for once." Kiba replied smugly with a grin on his face.

"Hmm, whatever you say man, maybe if this class was based on Akamaru and Ino instead of jutsu and history you'd be nowhere near your current dead-last ranking." Naruto said with a hint of haughtiness in his voice

His reply led to Kiba blushing and steaming out of his ears that he'd put his crush on Ino out there in the open like that. Practically everyone besides Sayuri knew Naruto was interested in her, however nobody knew of Kiba's crush on Ino.

Sitting in the row to the side of them, a rather portly child began to snicker while a child with a spiky ponytail was yawning with a look of boredom on his face.

"Sheesh do you two ever believe in letting some of us get some sleep around here?" Shikamaru asked

"You sleep everywhere you lazy bastard" Kiba retorted

"KIBA! SHIKAMARU! Since you two have so much energy I want the both of you to explain the history of the Senju Clan before we take our test!" bellowed their instructor Iruka Umino

"Awe man what a drag…" Shikamaru said before letting his head slam back on the desk only to be hit with the piece of chalk Iruka was using to write on the board.

Later on in the day when everyone was leaving and being picked up by their guardinas Naruto sat alone just like every day and waited for either Kakashi or Yugao to pick him up. He knew that he could've just walked home but he simply wanted the joy of being picked up from school and asked how his day went before returning home. While sitting off to the side he noticed Sayuri began to approach him with a curious look on her face.

As soon as she walked up to him he extended his hand to her saying "Naruto Uzumaki, future Sixth Hokage" with a wide grin on his face.

She replied by shaking his and stating "Sayuri Uchiha, future Uchiha clan head and… well I don't know what else right now"

"I'm sure one day you'll come up with something, can I help you?" Naruto asked

"How are you so strong, everyone says you aren't even from a clan, so I don't get how you're the strongest kid in our class? Even the instructors say you should be raised for graduation this year." Sayuri questioned

Naruto merely replied by shrugging his shoulders casually while muttering things like "I don't really know" and "I guess because of my studies" not wanting to give away anything serious to Sayuri.

"Hn, I'm still curious as to who you are exactly Naruto Uzumaki."

"Hey I'll tell you what, how about I help you get stronger and train with you? That way we both get stronger and get to know each other better." Naruto said

Sayuri was surprised at how this stranger immediately offered to help her, after hearing his request she allowed a smirk to come across her face before muttering "I'd like that, tomorrow training ground 2" before she felt a presence behind her

Turning around she saw her mother accompanied with her elder brother with a smile on both of their faces looking at what they believed was a new friendship. Her mother, Mikoto stepped forward with the same smile on her face before slightly kneeling down to be face to face with the two children.

"Hello I'm Sayuri's mother Mikoto," she stated before turning to her daughter "have you made a new friend sweetie?" she asked in a melodic tone

Sayuri replied with a shrug before speaking "Hn, I guess you can say that mother we'll be training together soon." Sayuri replied. That caught her elder brother Itachi's attention, Sayuri would only want to train with him, who was this child and how had he caught his kid sister's attention.

"Oh is that right? Well I hope you two have fun when you start your training, if I may… what is your name?" Mikoto asked with her full attention on Naruto.

Naruto really like the way this woman's emotions were rolling off of her, she was genuinely a nice person. Sayuri's elder brother however had a few emotions going through him, calmness confusion and… is that a little bit of envy?

Shaking himself clear of their emotions Naruto extended his hand to Mikoto's the same way he did to Sayuri before exclaiming "Naruto Uzumaki, future Sixth Hokage y'know!"

Mikoto began to extend her hand towards his and liked the boy's enthusiasm; it reminded her of her kid brother Obito who perished in the Third Great Ninja War, before she froze at hearing that verbal tic at the end.

Naruto noticing she wasn't shaking his hand wondered if he did something wrong until he remembered exactly how the lady introduced himself, Itachi's emotions caught him so off guard he wasn't truly paying attention to the lady. _'Crap, this was mother's best friend and rival! If what Grandpa Sarutobi said was true about me having her verbal tic this lady just picked up on me being the long lost dead child.'_ Naruto panicked within his head

Itachi seeing how his mother uncharacteristically froze decided to shake the young boy's hand and introduce himself. "Itachi Uchiha, Sayuri's elder brother, I'm quite curious what you and my sister will be training in." trying to relieve the situation

"Oh well, I'm not all too sure yet, perhaps taijutsu and some chakra control exercises if that's fine with her" Naruto said while looking in Sayuri's direction who only replied with a shrug and a stoic face.

That's when it happened; Naruto was barraged with a plethora of emotions from Mikoto who was still frozen looking at him.

' _No it can't be. No they told us everyone perished; the baby wasn't even born before the Nine-Tails attacked. But it all adds up, he's around the same age as Sayuri meaning he had to have been born around the time the Nine-Tails attacked. He even looks just like Minato; I have to speak with Hiruzen.'_ Mikoto thought unaware at how her emotions were coming off so strong towards Naruto.

"Well it was nice meeting you Naruto I hope you and Sayuri have fun and take it easy on each other. Itachi can you take Sayuri home? I need to run an errand while I'm already in the area." Mikoto said before walking off before her eldest could respond to her

"I'll see you tomorrow Sayuri, it was nice meeting you Itachi, I have to go… do something hehe" Naruto said before jumping away

' _Weird, what's wrong with mother? I've never seen her act like that, not even in privacy'_ Sayuri thought while mentally looking for an answer from Itachi who didn't have either

' _I got to get there before she does and warn Grandpa Sarutobi'_ Naruto thought

Upon arriving to the Hokage's window Naruto stepped in loud enough to be heard by the Hokage to let him know it was him.

"Naruto my boy, what brings you here today? Yugao will be pretty upset if she finds out you walked home witho-"

"Not the time Grandpa Saru, I think I accidentally spilled the beans to Sayuri's mom about my identity." Naruto interrupted

Hiruzen's face turned serious before motioning for him to elaborate.

"Sayuri approached me after classes today and her mother and brother introduced themselves to me, when I introduced myself I kind of let my verbal tic slip. I blame Itachi, he was throwing so many emotions at me I was hardly paying attention to their mother! It all caught me off guard I swear!" Naruto began to plead

"This is quite serious Naruto, your mother Mikoto were inseparable in their younger years before they got married. Is this your way of warning me that she'll be coming here?" Hiruzen asked

"Yeah, right before they were going to take Sayuri home she said she had an er-"

"Naruto Uzumaki! Do you know how worried you had me when I didn't pick up your chakra signature anywhere near the school!?" bellowed a protective Yugao

After being given permission to train and be with Naruto in privacy Kakashi and Yugao began to get pretty protective of Naruto almost as if he were their kid brother. At times they would argue amongst themselves as to who was the better older sibling and such.

Upon entering the Hokage's office the same way Naruto did Yugao began to crush him in a hug, hell she was off-duty, she could naturally show emotion.

The door began to open to the Hokage's office and in came the Hokage's secretary followed by one Mikoto Uchiha. Upon entering the Hokage's office the first thing Mikoto noticed was a long purple-haired woman hugging the same boy she met outside the academy. She then put together the pieces to the puzzle, which was Kushina's apprentice who went ANBU hugging Kushina's son.

Mikoto's mind went into overload and there was only one thing that she heard above all else. Her legs carried her over to her godson before she dropped down on her knees with tears in her eyes and hung onto him like a lifeline. Yugao who was taken aback then figured that Mikoto learned who Naruto really was.

Hiruzen motioned for the secretary to leave as well as the ANBU to put up the special barrier so no outsider could listen in. Mikoto was now bawling and incoherently making promises to Naruto that he couldn't quite understand.

Naruto wrapped his arms around Mikoto and began to soothe her by rubbing circles on her back, it was the same thing Yugao did whenever he got too emotional thinking about his parents.

About ten minutes later with Naruto and Mikoto now both sitting on a sofa due to Mikoto fearing of letting Naruto go, Hiruzen figured it was time to explain to Mikoto.

"Mikoto what you have just learned is a S-Rank secret that is highly punishable, I expect for you to inform absolutely no one of what you have just learned am I clear? Now, I must apologize for you lying to you about the true night of that story but I felt it would be better for Naruto to learn later in life of his parentage." Hiruzen explained

Naruto immediately felt the sorrow in Mikoto turn into rage, quickly acting he began to soothe her again and said "don't take it out on Grandpa Hokage Ms. Uchiha, he was only doing what he though was best, besides I'm glad to have finally met you." Naruto finished with a gigawatt smile that melted Mikoto

Hiruzen inwardly thanked Naruto from saving him from Mikoto's wrath, remembering when both she and Kushina would barge into his office as teenagers demanding answers from him.

Mikoto smiled back at Naruto before wrapping him into another hug. Turning her attention to the Hokage she asked one question, "What about Hiashi? He's practically been killing himself over the past few events I'm sure you know."

Hiruzen sighed upon hearing that name; Hiashi Hyuga was an extraordinary man both on and off the field before tradgedy struck his life. One by one he lost important person after important person. First Minato, the same man that introduced him to his wife Hitomi, the night of the Nine-Tails event shocked everyone to the core and then hearing that Minato died made him feel hollow how he couldn't help his friend. Then he lost Hitomi, his wife and formerly Minato's teammate, she passed away giving birth to his youngest daughter Hanabi which really struck a chord. Finally he lost his younger brother Hizashi after the Hyuga Affair with the Hidden Cloud Village. Hiruzen remembered when Hiashi was ready to give his life away to the Hidden Cloud.

Perhaps it was best for Hiashi to know that Minato truly isn't gone all essence. He was coping the deaths of the others well but Hiruzen could see the slight pain on his face whenever he thought of his fallen loved ones. _'I pray nothing happens to any of those children.'_ Hiruzen thought before calling the ANBU

"ANBU, send for Hiashi Hyuga immediately…" Hiruzen said loud enough for everyone to hear him

' _Hiashi Hyuga, isn't he the clan head? What does he have to do with all of this?'_ Naruto thought

Five minutes later Hiashi Hyuga arrived to the Hokage's office with a stoic visage. He took a look around the silent room before his eyes landed on Mikoto and a blonde-haired child who were both seated on the sofa. He noticed that Mikoto was holding onto the boy and had tearstains underneath her still puffy eyes.

Hiashi's eyes were the size of saucers when he saw the boy's eyes. 'It can't be, how could he have gone this entire time without me even noticing? Minato…' "Lord Hokage, what is the meaning of this? Is that child who I believe he is?" Hiashi practically demanded an answer

"Yes Hiashi, young Naruto here is Minato's legacy."

Hiashi stood there rooted to the ground as he kept his eyes on the boy in Mikoto's clutches. He was going to walk out of the room until Mikoto explained what their leader told her as well as Naruto's backstory and why the Hokage is now letting it be known only for the family's closest friends as well as the punishment for letting the secret slip.

Hiruzen later went on to explain to both Mikoto and Hiashi that he cannot let either one of them adopt Naruto just like he couldn't let Kakashi or Yugao, but if they truly wanted to spend time with Naruto they would have to do so in privacy.

After dismissing the unplanned meeting Hiruzen began to think of how he was getting to old for everything.

 **Three Years Later –**

It was nearing the end of the academy season and looking back at everything that had happened after meeting Mikoto and Hiashi Naruto had to admit it's been a pretty wild ride.

He was practically forced to attend all of Sayuri and Hinata's birthdays as well as Hanabi's and even one of Itachi's, who the hell keeps a straight face the entire time they blow out the candles to their cake? Itachi freaking Uchiha that's who. Naruto also could've sworn that Sayuri was beginning to have feelings for him after the failed coup d'état.

An elder in the Uchiha clan along with four other Uchiha began to spread around rumors that they would overthrow the Hokage for his poor treatment to the Uchiha clan. Upon hearing this, Naruto confronted Sayuri's family, minus Sayuri and informed them of their corrupted clansmen plot. Safe to say Fugaku made sure everything was handled and that the Uchiha clan was trying to get their names back in the village's graces.

Mikoto later confronted Naruto and asked why he came to them and saying "what if we were actually planning to rebel against the Hokage?" to which Naruto merely replied that he had a hunch the claims weren't true and he was merely looking out for distant family.

Naruto was sitting in the classroom awaiting the instructor Iruka to enter so he could start another day of simple class. Naruto was wearing a short sleeve ash-colored hoodie with the red Uzumaki crest on the back over a long sleeved black shirt with bands on them (like Minato's shirt just black in color) along with black pants and ninja boots that stopped around his calves.

Upon entering the room Iruka flashed a smile towards Naruto that was caught by both him and Sayuri, clearing his throat to get his class's attention Iruka yelled at them to make them sit down.

"Class today I have a special announcement, one of our very own has been moved up to the graduating class and will become a genin if he passes the exam." Iruka informed his class

Just about everyone in the class looked towards Naruto who tried to avert his eyes from everyone at being put on the spot like that.

"Naruto Uzumaki, it's been a pleasure being your teacher, I'm pretty sure you'll easily pass the test seeing that you know all of the fundamental jutsu the academy teaches you and then some." Iruka said with a smile on his face.

' _What the hell/What the Fuck!_ ' both Naruto and Sayuri thought at the same time. Naruto came to an agreement with the Hokage that he'd graduate alongside his current class. Meanwhile, Sayuri was truly getting attached to Naruto and began to think that she'd rarely see him again; he'd be on a different team than her, make chunin and jonin before her, take on his own team and teach them while he leaves her behind.

Naruto began to make his way to the front of the class while shooting Sayuri an 'I don't know' look as well, he was congratulated by his classmates as well as his teachers once more before leaving to the other classroom where he passed the test with the highest score.

To say Sayuri was upset was understatement, although she wouldn't show it, internally she was pissed! And it hit Naruto like a freight train when she approached him after classes were over.

Upon reaching Naruto she noticed the newest accessory to his out, the Hidden Leaf headband which signified he was now a genin, legally an adult, no longer a student.

"So, who are your teammates and sensei?" Sayuri asked in a quick yet upset manner

' _There's no way she's blaming this on me right? I mean I didn't know I was going to be promoted early… hell I even skipped Neji's class I didn't know I could do that!'_ Naruto thought to himself

"I was told that I'm going to be apprenticed, they didn't tell me who they just told me to come back to the academy tomorrow at 7:30." Naruto replied still inwardly shying away from Sayuri's hostile emotions.

"Hn." Sayuri merely grabbed him by the hand and began to walk away from the academy in direction to her house, now that they had been friends for so long in the academy they didn't necessarily have to hide their friendship anymore.

Later on that day at the Uchiha compound Naruto was beside himself with all the emotions he was receiving from Sayuri. One moment she was upset, the next she relaxed, then she was envious which was followed by shameful and finally respect. Naruto being the smart child he was decided to catch her on that good emotion and dismissed himself but not before giving her a hug and pushing the envelope by giving her a kiss on the cheek before saying "don't worry Sayuri I'll make sure to keep you updated as much as possible I promise."

Although Sayuri heard what he said it all sounded muffled and her heart was in her throat with the brightest of blushes on her face. She stood rooted there for the next five minutes before walking to her room, not even noticing her mother and brother in the shadows peeping on her interaction the entire time.

The next day Naruto was in an empty classroom and was told by the Hokage himself that he'd take on four different senseis for the next year, Kakashi Hatake, Kurenai Yuhi, Might Guy, and his surrogate uncle Asuma Sarutobi. Kurenai had recently received the ranking of jonin and Asuma recently came back to the Hidden Leaf Village from his stint in the capital as one of the 12 Guardian ninja. Kakashi was recently relieved of his ANBU duties and Guy practically volunteered to tag along with his comrades and to show something he called "the springtime of his youth" before taking on a team of his own.

Naruto was also told that he'd truly be an apprentice to somebody next year before being assigned to a team, this year he was just doing more training as well as solo D-Rank missions which weren't all that solo seeing he had shadow clone jutsu down thanks to Kakashi who was nearly punished for teaching him that jutsu for his 8th birthday present.

Over the next year Kakashi helped Naruto with his ninjutsu and taijutsu while Kurenai supported him in using genjutsu. Contrary to popular belief Naruto was actually pretty good at genjutsu thanks to all of the chakra control exercising he performed when he was younger, he just didn't really use any genjutsu personally. Might Guy specialized in Naruto's strength and conditioning training as well as his taijutsu training, Naruto would never forgive his senseis for telling Guy he felt his "flames of youth" deteoriating at an immediate rate which led to him running 20 laps around the village. Asuma would help teach Naruto in flowing chakra through his weapons as well as teaching him a few wind style jutsu.

All in all Naruto learned the following jutsus:

 _ **Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu**_

 _ **Fire Style: Flame Bombs**_

 _ **Wind Style: Dust Storm Jutsu**_

 _ **Wind Style: Supreme Typhoon**_

 _ **Wind Style: Air Bullet**_

 _ **Wind Style: Vacuum Bullets**_

 _ **Wind Style: Pressure Damage**_

 _ **Lightning Style: Violet Bolt**_

 _ **Lightning Style: Thunderbolt**_

 _ **Lightning Style: Earth Flash**_

 _ **Earth Style Shadow Clone**_

 _ **Earth Style: Mud Wall**_

 _ **Earth Style: Hidden in Stones Jutsu**_

 _ **Earth Style: Hidden Mole Jutsu**_

 _ **Water Style: Hiding in Water Jutsu**_

 _ **Water Style: Liquid Bullets**_

 _ **Water Style: Water Trumpet**_

 _ **Water Style: Water Wall**_

 _ **Water Clone Jutsu**_

 _ **Genjutsu: Optic Delusory**_

 _ **Demonic Illusion: Death Mirage Jutsu**_

 _ **Demon Illusion: Fire Jutsu**_

 _ **Genjutsu: Sylvan Fetters**_

 _ **Ninja Art: Shuriken Giant Body Technique**_

 _ **Ninja Art: Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu**_

 _ **Shadow Shuriken Jutsu**_

Naruto also went on to create a few of his two of his own jutsu:

 _ **Ninja Art: Hidden Leaf Jutsu**_ which relies on both his shadow clones as well as the transformation technique, it's mainly used for diversions and ambushes.

 _ **Everywhere Shuriken Jutsu**_ where Naruto creates scores of shadow clones and they all throw shuriken at their target with the intent for the target to try to dodge and run right into a blindside attack.

 **And That's Chapter 1…**


	2. The Gallant, The Road Trip, The Reunion

**Review Responses:**

 **Hoguie: First of all thank you for the review, you will be hearing of how he utilizes his sensing ability in combat in this chapter, I'm new to this so your review was very encouraging.**

 **frankieu: Thank you for the review, I always pictured Itachi not showing much if any emotion even if it came to blowing out candles to his cake.**

 **94 I do not know for certain who all will be in the multi but I agree with you on the Hinata topic. I can tell you that I currently have Sayuri, Shizuka and Female Haku. Let me know if you'd like to see anyone else I'm trying to keep it to 5 at the most.**

 **Author's Notes:**

 **Unlike canon, Naruto's sensor ability allows him to sense all types of emotions, not just the negative ones.**

It had been a year since Naruto began his training alongside the four future jonin senseis as well as doing a record of 456 D-Rank missions and 12 C-Rank missions and he was getting ready to meet the Hokage to see who he would truly be apprenticing.

' _I really hope I get a cool teacher, having Kakashi or Uncle Asuma would be pretty cool, ooo what if I get Hiashi and he teaches me some of the movements to the Gentle Fist to help my fluidity?'_ Naruto began to think.

' _ **It's quite obvious that none of them will be your teacher, you've already spent more than half of your life with the silver haired one, that uncle of yours has nothing else to teach you like he said the first nine times and the pale-eyed one won't give away his clan's secrets to an outsider.'**_ Kurama immediately shot down each thought one after the other

' _Well then Mr Omnipotence who did you think Grandpa Hokage had in mind?'_ Naruto mentally asked

' _ **Someone of even higher ranking, perhaps someone who can assist you in taming my power.'**_ Kurama replied

' _Hmm now that you say that I have to agree with you, but there aren't any experts in sealing jutsu in the village. Besides I can handle two tails of your chakra at the moment, I think that's pretty damn impressive for an 11-year old.'_ Naruto said

' _ **You merely got lucky the last time when activating my chakra you hairless monkey, I was a claw away from pushing you into bloodlust. Maybe next time you should listen to me when I tell you enough is enough.'**_ Kurama spat at his container

' _You stay complacent for damn near four years and don't complain, I'm trying to push myself to the best I can be'_ Naruto replied with a closed smile on his face

Kurama cut the mental link after hearing Naruto's reply mainly to not have a back and forth with him.

' _Did Kurama just… Rude little-"_

"Hello Naruto how is this glorious day treating you? Don't the flowers smell lovely this morning?" Hiruzen asked his surrogate grandson with a cheerful aura around him

' _Awe man, I sure as hell hope Grandpa Saru hasn't been smoking the tobacco out of the wrong patch again'_ Naruto thought

"Umm yeah it's all going pretty well considering it's only… around 7:30 in the morning. Say Grandpa Saru, what's got you in such a good mood? Plus why are you here don't you start your day at 7:00?" Naruto asked

Hiruzen placed his hand atop Naruto's head and ruffled his hair with a smile face. "My my Naruto my dear boy, thanks to your recommendation you gave me earlier I am at the Hokage's office while I'm also here."

"Oh but I thought you said you can't hold the _**Shadow Clone Jutsu**_ __for too long…" Naruto said

"I'm only using two clones my boy, after assigning you to your next sensei I'll join them and finish up on my paperwork."

"So what do you plan on doing with all your free time Grandpa?"

Upon being asked that question Hiruzen began to ponder what he could do, he never truly had free time to himself like he did as a young Hokage. Then one thing came in my mind, Jiraiya would be coming to pick up Naruto and dropping off another one of his books, Hiruzen still had to finish his current book but he would now have more than enough time thanks to this ball of sunshine.

' _The choices are endless'_ Hiruzen thought

The entire time Naruto was wondering why his grandfather's mood was brightening with the passing second.

"Uh Grandpa Saru…?" Naruto snapped him back to attention.

"As of the moment I do not know what I will do with my free time yet Naruto, but don't worry I'll find something to do." Hiruzen confirmed

"Okay, well who's going to be my new sensei?" Naruto asked buzzing at who could possibly be stronger than those who already taught him.

"He should be here any secon-"

Hiruzen was interrupted by a rather large plume of smoke that revealed a man of large stature with long white spiky hair standing in a kabuki pose on top of a ninja toad in samurai armor.

"Come one come all, gather around people for the main event has arrived, the ladies love me, the men fear me, for I am the legendary Toad Sage of Myobokuzan… Jiraiya the Gallant!" Jiraiya bellowed his introduction to two deadpanned individuals

"You're the village's madness that's what you are…" Hiruzen muttered loud enough for Jiraiya to hear "Jiraiya get down here and meet your new student."

"Naruto Uzumaki, future Sixth Hokage at your service Jiraiya Sensei!"

"Hey who's the brat sensei, I thought you said you were bringing someone with true potential." Jiraiya stated trying to get a rise out of Naruto

Naruto replied by looking at Hiruzen who chuckled and asked "wait, this one was the one you tied to the stump after the bell test?"

"That would be him Naruto, Jiraiya of the Sannin." Hiruzen replied

"That bell test was decades ago old man, how do you know about that brat?"

' _Oh this is going to be fun, I'll just play ignorance for now…'_ Naruto thought

"Grandpa Saru told me you always were the easiest one to trick, he also told me that you're probably the strongest of the Sannin at the moment but all of you guys are currently washed up buzzards so I thi-"

"Washed up buzzards! You're 100 years too early to call me a washed up buzzard you little brat. You can't even compare to the greatness that is Jiraiya."

"Did you just refer to yourself in third person? That's actually kind of disturbing" Naruto turned to Hiruzen and asked "hey can I spar with him like I did my other teachers?"

"That is up to Jiraiya" Hiruzen replied before looking at Jiraiya

Jiraiya simply scoffed before folding his arms and turning his nose upward "Yeah right, what do I gain in wiping the floor with some snot nosed brat like you?"

' _Alright, you did it to yourself…'_ Naruto said before turning back to Hiruzen

"Sheesh Grandpa Saru you didn't tell me this guy was a scaredy cat to. I understand that not all ninja age like you but I mean are you sure he's the strongest of the Sannin? I mean if he is then I hate to say it but you might as well declare me a Sannin right here and now" Naruto said smugly while inwardly smirking at seeing the look on Jiraiya's face

"You know what Sarutobi Sensei, I don't mind showing a brat or two their place when it's necessary" Jiraiya said

Adding insult to injury he took off the scroll he was carrying and leaned forward with his hands behind his back in a taunting motion. "Well come on, hit me the first shot is free…"

That was practically music to Naruto's ears, not only had Jiraiya played right into his palm but he was also not going to guard himself from a wide open punch.

Hiruzen truly wanted to intervene but figured Jiraiya would learn his lesson in no longer underestimating Naruto after getting his clock cleaned.

Naruto began to rotate his arm in a winding up motion before adding a tad of chakra to his fist before punching Jiraiya around 50 meters away where he proceeded to skip like a stone over water.

One second Jiraiya was looking at his favorite student's brat winding up to punch him the next he was seeing his own heaven, Toads, Tsunade, grandchildren… The works.

Reeling himself back up he knew something was wrong but didn't get the chance to voice it since right when both of his feet were firmly on the ground he was being attacked again by said brat.

Hiruzen watched the spar in delight seeing Naruto take advantage of getting the first punch in and naturally moving around like his father did with hints of Might Guy here and there.

 **2 Hours Later -**

Naruto's fatigue was beginning to rear its head as he didn't hold up on the assault against Jiraiya for the entire two hours, which was a new record to him.

Jiraiya who noticed Naruto's breathing getting heavier decided to taunt him "getting tired already brat? I guess this washed up buzzard has you beat huh?"

Naruto did nothing but smirk and reach into his kunai pouch while holding out his right hand and what Jiraiya saw nearly scared him to death. In his left hand Naruto was holding a flying raijin kunai, while in his right hand he was beginning to form a rasengan.

' _How the hell does he know that jutsu already? I was supposed to teach it to him'_ Jiraiya thought while panicking. Before he could move out of the way he felt to hands grab his ankles

Looking down Jiraiya noticed he was caught off guard by the _**Earth Style: Hidden Mole Jutsu**_ and was now a wide open target with one thought running through his head

' _Damn you Kakashi!'_

 _ **Rasengan!**_ Naruto bellowed before being intercepted by Hiruzen who grabbed his wrist which dispelled the ball of chakra with a grin on his face

"Now now Jiraiya, I believe you no longer will underestimate Naruto's abilities…" Hiruzen stated in a sage like manner

The hands that were holding Jiraiya poofed away in a plume of smoke, releasing Jiraiya who finally exhaled.

Jiraiya looked at the two with a boring expression before asking "He already knows his heritage huh sensei?" To which Hiruzen replied with a nod while Naruto had a large smile on his face

"Did you see his face when I was about to hit him with the _**Rasengan?**_ Great Deities he looked like he saw a ghost!" Naruto yelled while roaring in laughter

"You're still a brat for that, so I'm assuming Kakashi taught you the _**Rasengan**_?"

"Yeah, it was my late 10th birthday present, although it took me around two weeks to really get it down." Naruto informed him

Hiruzen who informed Jiraiya to meet him at his office after catching up left to finish as much paperwork as he could to get a long break from it.

After 2 hours Jiraiya informed Naruto he plans on taking him on a training trip for the next year to teach him as much as possible before having him sign up with a team.

Entering the Hokage's office the same way his students did Jiraiya asked his sensei what he needed.

"Jiraiya it is of the utmost importance that at the end of your trip you bring Tsunade back to the village." Hiruzen informed his student

"Well it won't be easy, she's gotten better at avoiding me but I'll see what I can do… What do you need her for that I can't do? Something medical?" Jiraiya asked, never had he been requested to bring Tsunade back only to deliver and receive messages from her.

"Tsunade will be succeeding me as the Fifth Hokage…"

"..."

"..."

Absolute silence until Jiraiya began to roar in laughter "oh Sarutobi Sensei that was hilarious, you know as well as I do Tsunade won't come back to the village and you want her to become Hokage of all things? You truly are going senile huh?"

"This is no laughing matter Jiraiya, I'm requesting for you to inform her and bring her back so she can succeed me, I'm no longer the same shinobi I once was, I'd like for her to succeed me after the chunin exams. As to how we'll bring her back to the village just let her know that her grandson is well and kicking and I'll explain everything to her upon her arrival."

The gears in Jiraiya's head truly began to turn, _'sensei set me up good this time, he knew I'd take Naruto on this training trip and now he wants me to confront Tsunade with him and bring her back to the village'_

"I'm not going to make any promises sensei, hell I can't guarantee I'll come back alive when she finds out but I'll try, but you owe me big time. I expect you to turn the other cheek when I go researching for the next two weeks as soon as I return." Jiraiya demanded

Exhaling with a deadpan look on his face he merely replied with a nod not wanting to verbally acknowledge he agreed to Jiraiya's request.

Meanwhile on the other side of town Naruto was informing all of his close friends of the training trip he was leaving for in a week. Immediately after telling Sayuri he could feel the negative emotions coming from her, he should've known this wouldn't be easy. Calming her down he let her know he'd convince Jiraiya into letting him sign the Toad contract before departing so that he could keep in touch with her.

 **One Week Later –**

Sure enough five days later and three uses of his patented _**Ninja Art: Sexy Jutsu**_ he convinced his new sensei to let him sign the Toad summoning contract. Now the date of his departure had finally arrived and he was headed to the village gates to meet Jiraiya so they could get on the road. What Naruto didn't expect was a going away party that consisted of Sayuri's family minus Itachi who was on a mission, the Hyuga family, the Ichiraku father and daughter, Kakashi, Yugao, Guy, Kurenai, Asuma, Konohamaru, Hiruzen and… is that Genma?

"Hey everybody we'll be righ-"

Before Naruto was able to finish he was glomped in a hug by Yugao who was showing emotion at losing her little brother for a year. She was quickly joined by an emotional Mikoto and Ayame who quickly outweighed him and forced him to the ground. A slightly jealous Sayuri made sure that she would have her goodbye last.

"Okay can we get this emotional train on the r-"

"Jiraiya of the Sannin if I hear one word of you even being a mile's radius within one of those brothels you frequently visit or get my baby brother into any of your deviant habits I'll have your little friend on the end of my sword." Yugao interrupted in a threatening manner.

After shaking hands with everyone besides the double hug he received from the Hyuga sisters as well as the hug and kiss on the cheek he received from Sayuri he was about to depart with Jiraiya until they were interrupted once again by Genma.

"Hey kid, I heard you guys would go looking for someone that's with someone else I haven't seen in a while… I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you run into a lady named Shizune, short black hair, usually carrying around a pig, give her this letter for me." He said and right before relinquishing the letter to Naruto he pulled it back and said "I know if you'll open it so make sure only Shizune sees it little man, and stay safe on your trip." Genma finished with a slight tinge of pink on his face

"Well let's get going brat; our first stop is Nadeshiko Village out eastward. It'll take us a few days to get there but if we get moving now we'll make some progress." Jiraiya said

"Right. Well I'll see you all in a year, don't wait up." Naruto finished with his trademark gigawatt smile and a wave of his hand

 **Two Days Later – On Boat headed towards Nadeshiko Village**

"Say Jiraiya Sensei what's awaiting us over in Nadeshiko?"

"Hmm, oh nothing just an old friend of mine I haven't seen in years, tell me brat, what all have you been taught in the previous year"

Naruto knew he was telling the truth but he knew there was something more to it and mentally told himself to be ready for anything

"Well I worked on quite a bit of ninjutsu and taijutsu with Kakashi Sensei. Kurenai Sensei assisted me in learning a few genjutsu. Gai Sensei made sure to push my body to the limit and also helped me with taijutsu, I was also able to get quite a few wind style jutsu down along with flowing chakra through my weapons with Asuma Sensei." Naruto informed Jiraiya

"Hn, well in all honesty kid I don't think I have much to help you with besides jutsu incorporated with the Toads, perhaps some sealing jutsus and helping you access your special chakra." Jiraiya replied

"Fair enough say when do you think we'll get there?" Naruto asked

"Give it a day at most kid, tell you what, why don't you sit back relax and read my new sample? Critique it, give me your honest opinion on it" Jiraiya said never dropping the lecherous grin on his face

' _Alright let's see what Jiraiya Sensei's book is all about, if this is the same thing Yugao gets on Kakashi about'_ Naruto thought before he began reading

It had been nothing but pure silence for the next fifteen minutes as Naruto had yet to put the book down. Jiraiya was shocked, he didn't see one blush on the child's face nor was he even trying to stifle a perverted giggle.

' _Awe come on, not even Minato was able to keep a straight face when reading my books, he'd be blushing like crazy.'_ Jiraiya said to himself watching his student treat his book, no his art like some mediocre novel. Little did Jiraiya know, the entire time Naruto was reading the book he was also holding a conversation with his tenant.

' _ **I'm quite certain that isn't even anatomically possible. You monkeys are quite the odd bunch, why not just procreate and be done with it? What's with all this honey pot this and flower petal that?'**_ Kurama thought quite confused with the work he was reading through Naruto's eyes.

' _I don't know you got me Kurama, but hey what do you think of this line? As she began to release her juices her lover marveled at the face she made while not showing any signs of slowing down to truly show her who's boss.'_ Naruto asked

' _ **I don't care for what juices are being freed or what faces she makes, all you humans have to do is merely partake in the act and propagate and have your measly powered child and go on with your lives.'**_ Kurama said growing tired of reading the book

' _You have a really bland way of looking at things, say can you have children? Or foxes?'_ Naruto asked curiously

' _ **No, I am an entity of pure chakra, I have no desire in procreating anyways fore I shall live on forever.'**_ Kurama informed him

Hearing he couldn't have children nor was he interested really drew his attention. Naruto began to think back to all the times he entered his mindscape to speak with Kurama face to face and recalled he never saw anything that could actually distinguish him from male or female.

' _Say Kurama… are you a boy or a girl?'_ Naruto asked

' _ **You hairless monkey, I just notified you that I am a being of pure chakra. Why would I have a gender if I'm made out of chakra'**_ Kurama was really growing tired of this conversation and was getting ready to cut the mental link before Naruto spoke once more

' _Well I apologize Kurama, but your name sounds pretty masculine and you've even referred to yourself as being a wise old man'_ Naruto said

' _ **Hmm, fine but you should tell the lion-maned monkey that his literature is rather odd and over the top when it comes to procreation.'**_ Kurama said before going back to sleep and cutting the mental link

"Well Naruto? You've been quiet for a while now, what do you think?" Jiraiya asked

"Well it's pretty different, I wasn't aware that this was the type of book you wrote. I think with a little tweaking it could be better." Naruto replied

Jiraiya hadn't known that Naruto already had… the talk. As soon as he informed Sayuri's family he would be going on a training trip alongside Jiraiya, Mikoto felt it was her duty to contact Yugao and sit Naruto down for half an hour to educate him on the ins and outs of sexual related matters.

Safe to say, Naruto was really caught off guard about the topic they spoke on but took it well, showing his maturity. He even asked questions that made the two women red in the face when answering them and told them that there was nothing they had to worry about since he wouldn't practice the act for years.

"Oh really, tell you what, during your free time how about you write your own model? It doesn't even have to be the same material that I write, whatever makes you feel comfortable and if I deem it worthy enough I may consider having it published." Jiraiya offered

"Okay you have a deal. But if I do write a good story you'll help me with my sealing jutsu whenever I ask you to, even if you are researching…" Naruto retorted

The sensei and student duo shook on their agreement before calling it a night and turning in.

 **Three Days Later –**

' _How the hell did I even get myself into this situation?'_ Naruto asked himself while dodging another fist thrown from the silent kunoichi

It turns out Jiraiya's old friend was somebody who he fought long ago and agreed to have his student(Naruto) fight her student(Shizuka) and if Naruto were to beat Shizuka he'd have to marry her. Jiraiya still had yet to tell him that so Naruto was on the defensive the entire time wondering why this girl was attacking him.

" _ **Nadeshiko-Style: Aerial Dance"**_ Shizuka called out before throwing a continuous barrage of kunai with deadly accuracy at Naruto and his clones.

' _Are we really fighting? This girl is going for the kill!'_ Naruto panicked before dodging the kunais along with his clones.

' _How could he have possibly dodged each one, I didn't even get any of his clones.'_ Shizuka thought to herself miffed that not just one person but twenty including his clones dodged all of her kunais.

"Naruto quit being so damn passive! That wsn't the way I taught you!" Jiraiya yelled from the sidelines standing near Shizuka's sensei

"You haven't even taught me anything yet!" Naruto retorted to a now sweat dropping Jiraiya

'Guess it'd be pretty rude if I never threw a jutsu back her way huh? Don't want her to get too upset with me'

"Alright let's turn up the heat" beginning to flash through hand signs and ending on the tiger hand sign _**"Fire Style: Flame Bombs"**_ yelled all of his clones who began to spew fire out of their mouth that grew to an enormous size so his opponent wouldn't be able to fully dodge it.

Upon jumping over the large flames Shizuka came face to face with one of Naruto's clones who began to run through hand signs before shouting _**"Lightning Style: Thunderbolt"**_ then extended both arms, releasing a high discharge through both palms and aimed it directly at Shizuka who was struck and began to fall to the ground.

Underneath the now dissolving flames one of Naruto's shadow clones grabbed the original by the collar of his hoodie and waistband of his pants and threw him in Shizuka's direction. After reaching Shizuka the Naruto kicked her in the gut twice before grabbing both of her arms from behind and performed the _**Primary Lotus**_ and pile drove her into a water area head first while rotating at a ferocious speed.

' _Sheesh, I see why Guy Sensei said that technique is forbidden. Not only am I tired but I'm dizzy as hell, I still don't have that technique down.'_ Naruto thought while dispelling all of his shadow clones except one before seeing Shizuka's body coming back up the water. _'Well I should finish this off now, all or nothing'_

Before she even had the chance to get up Shizuka noticed that there were two Naruto was once again directly in front of her again, bracing for the impact she placed her arms in front of her chest in an x.

Right upon reaching their target both Naruto and his clone delivered _**Leaf Hurricane Whirlwinds**_ and roundhouse kicked Shizuka knocking her off her feet and sending her twenty meters away.

Before Shizuka was even able to move a muscle she felt something sharp at her jugular, opening her eyes she saw Naruto's clone holding a kunai to her throat with a paper bomb on the end of it.

"Give up, I'm the clone and I don't mind taking you with me…" The clone told her. Looking back she saw the original Naruto in the same spot of where the kick was delivered holding the sign of confrontation while shouting "Listen to whatever he says! He's a clone so that makes him naturally crazy!"

Wounded by how easily Naruto was able to dispose of her when he took the offensive Shizuka closed her eyes and admitted defeat. As soon as the kunai was removed from in front of her neck she felt the clone helping her up. She wouldn't admit it but the reason she was moving so slow was from his lightning attack that was much stronger than it looked. Naruto offered to carry her back over to their senseis which startled Shizuka.

' _Is he already aware of the law of Nadeshiko? If so why didn't he take this fight serious from the beginning? Was he merely testing to see if I was capable to be his wife in the future?'_ Shizuka thought to herself before she was snapped out of her musings by Naruto.

"Uh Shizuka? If you don't want me to carry you is fine and all but you should really get checked out y'know." Naruto began to withdraw his hand only for it to be caught by a blushing Shizuka who accepted his request for him to carry her.

Walking back to Jiraiya and Shizuka's master with said girl on his back in a piggyback style Naruto began to wonder why the girl was so nervous and scared.

"I'm not going to attack you anymore, I apologize if I went over the top with the whole suicidal clone thing but I simply didn't wish to fight anymore. Say, why'd you attack me in the first place y'know? You could've taken my head off if I wasn't paying attention" Naruto asked

The only reply he got was Shizuka trying to hide her face behind his shoulder while radiating the same emotions.

'Oh well' Naruto thought until he noticed Jiraiya giving him a double thumbs up with that same shit-eating grin.

"My boy! Way to show your worth… As soon as you removed your head out of your ass you took complete control of the fight!" Jiraiya exclaimed

"Right… do you guys want to tell me why we were fighting in the first place? I thought we were here to meet an old friend of your's?" Naruto asked looking at the two older ninja in front of him until the woman stepped forward

"Naruto, here in Nadeshiko Village we have a certain law that states if one of our kunoichi are defeated in battle by a man after finishing their training they are to be wedded." The Nadeshiko Village Leader informed him

"Yep, she and I went at it quite a while back but it ended in a stalemate so we decided if we were to meet again later on in life we would have our students fight in our place. I had a feeling you'd easily win with your skills, hence the reason I had you study my book before we arrived here." Jiraiya finished

' _That son of a-'_

Naruto's thoughts were cut off by the thunderous cackling from his tenant. _**'Even I'll admit that the lion-maned pervert swindled you cleverly on this one! Tell you what brat when you become of age why don't you try that position where the girl throws her legs-'**_

Naruto quickly cut off the mental link so he could have a clear mind when he would begin to tell off Jiraiya for setting him up. It wasn't what Jiraiya set him up with it was more of the fact that Jiraiya was able to hide something to this scale behind a half-truth from him.

"Sorry, but I think your law will have to overlook me this time, I was unaware and in all honesty would've thrown the fight if I was familiar with your law." Naruto informed the village leader

"I'm afraid that won't be possible Naruto, and even if you were to have thrown the fight it would've have been Shizuka's choice then if you two were to be wedded or not." She replied

' _What kind of tangled up village is this?'_ Naruto thought _'As soon as I walked through those damn borders I set myself up to be married…'_

"Well Naruto look at it like this, at least you two have all the time in the world to grow and get to know each other" Jiraiya said with a grin on his face "Don't worry I'll alert everyone in the village, their favorite brat gone and met his wife not even a week out of his home." He finished trying to get a rise out of Naruto

' _Let's see how you handle this one brat'_ Jiraiya thought

' _Oh two can play that game you old buzzard'_ Naruto thought

"Hmm, oh well it's a shame I wasn't aware of the law. Guess I'll have to tell everyone you really got me this time Jiraiya Sensei. I guess I'll start off my letters with Yugao and Ms. Mikoto…" Naruto trailed off with the understood threat

Jiraiya immediately recalled how Yugao threatened him; hell the tip of her sword was touching his tip. Plus that woman's a sensory type ninja, and along with that Uchiha mother daughter combo he'd never have a chance when caught.

"Wait a minute Naruto, we can't get you married, and we still have our training trip to continue." He then turned his attention to the village's leader "I'm terribly sorry but it slipped my mind that my student and I still have quite a few places to be and people to meet. I'll make sure that he'll be back here to visit Shizuka again really soon" he finished

"The wedding isn't off Jiraiya, we made a deal. I expect you to be back within three years… if not, well you wouldn't want to have an army of kunoichi looking for you now would you?" She asked with a threatening tone

' _I do I do! Why don't I have an army of kunoichi chasing after the greatness that is the Gallant Jiraiya?'_ Jiraiya mentally cried

Naruto replied with a closed smile before acknowledging he wouldn't want an army searching for him at all.

Before going back to their hotel Jiraiya and Naruto were informed there would be a small festival in the village in four days and that they were both invited to attend although they were currently bending village laws.

Throughout the next few days Naruto would meet up with Shizuka and talk to her about her future and constantly inform her that he wasn't okay with her being forced into a marriage. Most conversations would start with him saying there was a girl back in his village that was constantly on his mind; although they hadn't given titles to each other he believed she was the one for him. Then the conversations would take a turn due to a cluster of kunoichi surrounding Naruto and asking Shizuka to be the godmother to their unborn children, where Naruto would usually tell Shizuka he'd see her later.

It was now the day of the festival and Naruto was basking in all of the positive emotions going around. Though he wouldn't admit it out loud he exceedingly enjoyed it when everyone around him was happy. He still had yet to run into Shizuka and was stuck with Jiraiya who was instead basking in the sights of all the older kunoichi.

"Naruto this place is heaven, pinch me so I know I'm not dreaming" To which Naruto pinched his arm "Oh good, now make sure you mark this date down in your calendar every year so we can come back to this fantastic wonderland" Jiraiya finished wbefore running after two well-endowed kunoichi with hearts in his eyes.

Naruto knew the minute Jiraiya left him he would be practically be bombarded by kunoichi after kunoichi. Some wanted answers to their questions others wanted… him, in many ways. Mentally counting down in his head with each step he took Naruto sure enough found himself talking to around ten different girls his age and a tad older trying to answer their questions and politely decline their advances.

The festival was beginning to come to a close and he had yet to see Shizuka. Naruto then made it his personal business to find her using his signature _**Shadow Clone Jutsu**_ he created a dozen clones who scattered in searching for Shizuka.

Fifteen minutes later he found her by herself and noticed that her mood was down when he confronted her on why she didn't attend the festival she told him that she would've been frowned upon because of how easily he defeated her and she was already saddened by him declining her village's law. Naruto was able to cheer her up later on and promised that he'd visit her again as a friend she could confide in. Before leaving Shizuka expressed gratitude to him for going out of his way to make sure she was alright with a hug and kiss on the cheek.

The next afternoon Naruto and Jiraiya were exiting Nadeshiko gates until Jiraiya stopped and asked Naruto where he wanted to go next on the map with the exception of the Hidden Rock Village stating they still aren't too fond of blonde haired guys with blue eyes.

Taking the map from his master he began to study it. "How about the Hidden Mist Village, seeing we aren't too far from there right now" Jiraiya quickly took the map out of his hands and commenced in shooting down the idea

"Nope pick somewhere else brat"

Naruto was mentally twitching at his master's response, "you can't tell me to pick somewhere and then just tell me to point into another direction y'know"

"Just did, pick somewhere else brat."

"Why can't we go to the Hidden Mist Village, water style jutsu is my second best and that's the best place to better my skills."

"Look kid I don't even know what's going on in the Hidden Mist Village and I'm the spy master of the Hidden Leaf."

Naruto stood there with a deadpanned expression on his face while muttering "that doesn't sound too good for our village if you're our go-to-guy."

"Well let's go find out what's going on, you pride yourself on your espionage skills and said you wanted to teach me as much as you can on this trip. Assist me in my espionage and intelligence gathering skills, I'd say that at best there run-of-the-mill."

Jiraiya began to wonder if this really was a good idea, on one hand he could truly teach the child something he specializes in himself, on the other hand he has no idea what he could be walking into. Coming up with a decision he gave Naruto strict guidelines.

"Alright we're going to the Hidden Mist Village but listen to me and listen to me clear, the minute I don't like what's going on in there and I give you the order to retreat with me you do it. No ifs ands or buts, am I clear?"

"Bu-"

"That sounded like a but, I said am I clear?"

"…Yes Jirairya Sensei, loud and clear"

"Alright we'll head out to the Hidden Mist and should get there by nightfall. So we'll stop right before we get to their borders and set up camp outside."

"Well let's get going the Hidden Mist awaits us sensei…" Naruto said before he took off in a dead sprint in the direction of the Hidden Mist Village.

"That's my line you brat, and wait up my head's still kind of spinning from last night!" Jiraiya said before running after his student

True to his word they arrived at the border and scouted out the gate and surrounding area right outside the village. After noticing no immediate threats they both called it a night and prepped themselves for the infiltration tomorrow.

The next morning Jiraiya went over the plan on how to infiltrate the village which would also be a bit of training for Naruto in a Toad jutsu.

Inside the Hidden Mist Village it almost seemed like a ghost town, popping out of the water were two Toads, one green and one brown. Using the _**Hidden Toad Jutsu**_ both Naruto and Jiraiya exited out of the Toads before scouting the area again. Naruto was able to talk Jiraiya into letting him into generating a large amount of shadow clones to look around the village. What Jiraiya didn't know was the Naruto swapped places with one of his shadow clones as soon as they popped into existence.

Walking around the village aimlessly Naruto began to pick up on faint negative emotions.

'Bloodlust, anger, envy" he thought before picking up more emotions when heading in that direction "fear, anxiety, pride?' Naruto began to run as quietly as he could in the direction of the emotions he was feeling until he picked up the clone's memories that he left with Jiraiya.

' _Damn, he found out sooner than I thought he would'_ Naruto thought

Meanwhile on the other side of the village Jiraiya was running around like a madman with the intention of going postal on each Naruto clone he came across until running into the original.

' _That little brat! He pulled a fast one on me… Naruto you'd better pray to whatever deity you believe in cause when I'm through with you you'll wish your dead'_

Naruto was finally closing in on the emotions until he saw two ninja circled by what appeared to be six ANBU. ' _All of the negative emotions are coming from the ANBU'_ Naruto also noticed know that one of the two ninja that were surrounded by the ANBU was unconscious. _'Man Jiraiya Sensei is really gonna kill me when he sees me'_ Naruto thought receiving memories from six more clones that had been destroyed by Jiraiya.

One of the six ANBU jumped into the air to begin the assault unaware of Naruto planning to intercept his attack.

Jumping off of the roof he was hidden on Naruto took aim at the airborne ANBU and hit him with the _**Leaf Hurricane**_ before grabbing the ANBU by his ankles and wrapping his legs around his waist finishing him off with the _**Falcon Drop**_ killing the ANBU.

Nobody was even aware of the child who popped out of nowhere and was stunned even more to see the leading ANBU killed in less than a matter of seconds. Taking advantage of the ANBU being distracted the conscious surrounded shinobi, a tall, slender woman who appeared to be in her late twenties with long auburn hair in a herringbone pattern shot a large amount of lava from her mouth, which quickly solidified into multiple boulders of molten rock taking out two more ANBU.

Naruto began to grow through hand seals before slamming his palms on the ground and shouting _**"Earth Style: Mud Wall"**_ which shielded him from the streams of water the ANBU aimed at him.

Jiraiya had a hunch he was getting close to Naruto as he's dispersed almost the rest of his clones and was hearing what he thought was the sounds of a battle.

' _I swear if you've started a fight brat I'm going to-'_

Jiraiya was knocked out of his musings by a loud explosion which was in the same direction he was running towards. _'Hold on Naruto, I'm on my way knucklehead'_

Arriving to the location he was headed to Jiraiya walked in on Naruto surrounded by a multitude of Hidden Mist ninja. Assuming the worst Jiraiya cursed to himself for allowing his student go off on his own. Taking a peak back out towards Naruto Jiraiya noticed that Naruto and the other ninja were simply talking, almost as if the fight was over.

' _What the hell is going on? Is that brat smiling?'_ Jiraiya asked himself

Jiraiya decided to press his luck and casually walk out towards the Mist ninjas and before he was able to get up close to them they all got into defensive positions and were ready for another battle before his happy-go-lucky brat yelled "Hey Jiraiya Sensei what took you so long?"

On the outside Jiraiya was smiling at his student saving him from being assaulted by multiple ninja but inwardly he was picturing himself choking Naruto for his recklessness. One of the shinobi right beside Naruto who had an eyepatch over his right eye and two talisman for earrings spoke up.

"Is this child your student?" He asked Jiraiya and a business-like manner

"…Um yes?" Jiraiya said with not much confidence in his answer

Jiraiya was surprised when the man dropped down on one knee and was followed by every other ninja including the one he mentally deemed a babe with the dark blue dress right next to Naruto.

"Your teachings have saved us Master Jiraiya, fore if it weren't for your student here we as the rebellion would've lost Lady Mei along with Chukichi. My name is Ao, also known as Ao of the Byakugan, after we're done taking back the Hidden Mist we are in your debt" the ninja now named Ao explained

Naruto stood up awkwardly between all the saluting ninja with a sweatdrop running down his head before explaining to them that Jiraiya still had yet to teach him anything serious. They all stood up after that and casually showed gratitude with a head nod instead of bowing.

' _That little…'_ Jiraiya thought really enjoying the moment of having around 50 ninja that he was foreign to on their knees bowing to him.

Mei Terumi, or as Jiraiya dubbed her, the babe, ran him and Naruto up to speed about the civil war against those with kekkei genkais and asked them for their assistance, which Naruto quickly agreed to while Jiraiya was pondering.

"Come on Jiraiya Sensei they said it themselves, with you here it'd be a much more workable goal to take back the Hidden Mist." Naruto said flashing his trademark smile

"…Fine, we'll help them out only and I mean only if when you all take back your village you sign a treaty with the Hidden Leaf Village, don't tell the Hokage why, just do it."

"You have my word Master Jiraiya…" Mei trailed off

The newly formed alliance was able to outnumber the army thanks to Naruto's _**Ninja Art: Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu**_ and would later on face off against the Mizukage who was also the Three-Tails jinchuriki.

Naruto and Jiraiya were beginning to get drained while fighting the Mizukage until Mei Terumi joined them alongside Chukichi, Ao, and Chojuro, one of the new seven swordsmen of the mist. Launching out a final full scale attack Naruto used his _**Wind Style: Dust Storm Jutsu**_ that Jiraiya merged with his _**Fire Style: Flame Bombs**_ along with Mei using _**Lava Style: Scorching Rocks Jutsu**_ and Chojuro swinging his sword using _**Hiramekarei Release.**_

Unable to take all of the damage from the following jutsu hitting him the Mizukage began to pass away but not before thanking Naruto and the others, much to their confusion. Yagura died with a smile on his face.

After taking the seat as Fifth Mizukage, Mei began to send ninja out left and right to bring back rogue ninja as well as civilians who evacuated from the Mist during the civil war. She also held up her end of the bargain and immediately sent a peace treaty to the Hidden Leaf stating they just got over a civil war and were willing to become allies with the Leaf.

Due to participating in a war Jiraiya held off on Naruto's ninjutsu training for a while and mainly focused on his conditioning as punishment for running off without him.

Around two months later Naruto and Jiraiya finally left the Hidden Mist Village who were growing back up to their former prominence although they were still missing quite a few rogue ninja, mainly consisting of the other seven swordsmen who left the village.

Over the next nine months Jiraiya and Naruto traveled around the entire elemental nations minus the Hidden Rock Village and were back in Fire Country looking for Jiraiya's old teammate and Naruto's grandmother Tsunade Senju of the Sannin. Their final month they were having huge problems trying to locate her it was as if she knew where Jiraiya was before Jiraiya knew where she was. They were womdering how tshe kept getting the drop on them until Naruto remembered what Genma said right before they left the village.

' _Hey kid, I heard you guys would go looking for someone that's with someone else I haven't seen in a while… I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you run into a lady named Shizune, short black hair, usually carrying around a pig, give her this letter for me.'_

' _Crap it's the pig! It must have Jiraiya's smell remembered and alerting Grandma or that Shizune lady before we can get to them.'_

Naruto presented his hypothesis to Jiraiya who agreed with him and was going to propose an idea until Naruto left him where he was standing. Returning three minutes later with handfuls of dried fruit and truffles and began to stuff them in Jiraiya's pockets stating they'd attract the pig to them instead of being on a wild goose chase.

Now Naruto and Jiraiya were making their last push looking for Tsunade since they would have to leave town in two days to go back to the Leaf.

Meanwhile with Tsunade Tonton was once again making a commotion, "That damned pervert gets more and more assiduous the older he gets, okay Tonton lead the way" Tsunade commanded Tonton unaware that she was reacting heavily to the truffles it was smelling over Jiraiya's scent.

Hearing the command from her owner Tonton began to race in Jiraiya's direction.

Around three minutes later we find Naruto hiding in a tree while looking over Jiraiya who was beginning to get antsy until he called him down. "Get down here kid; I don't think your plan is going to work although I admit it was a good one for coming up with it so soon." Jiraiya told Naruto who came down and was about to acknowledge his plan failing until he started to smell a pig.

"Their coming Jiraiya Sensei!" Naruto announced only to feel Jiraiya stuff the dried fruits and truffles into his hoodie and jump in the tree that Naruto came down from recalling how aggressive Tonton could be when it came to food.

Naruto was caught off guard by his sensei's actions until he saw a pig round a corner with what looked to be look of yearning on its face. Tackled to the ground by the hyper hog, Naruto wasn't able to see Tsunade and Shizune trailing behind it. Laughing from the pig's snout tickling him looking for the food Naruto took it out of his hoodie and fed the pig who was already taking a liking to the blonde.

Before Tsunade could ask the child what was going on she heard the same voice she had been avoiding for years. "Tsunade! It's been far too long, don't worry not all women can stay away from the machismo of Jiraiya the Gallant!" He bellowed with his signature grin

"It's a trap Shizune! The pig, the brat, and the pervert it was all a set up!" Tsunade yelled until she got a good look at said brat that was now carrying her pig with one hand and feeding her with the other.

' _Those eyes, I haven't seen those eyes in around 30 years. Not since I gave birth to…'_ Tsunade quickly snapped herself away from her ruminations, she didn't think of such things unless she had alcohol in her system.

"Tsunade Sarutobi Sensei needs you back in the village, it's of the utmost importance that we get back as soon as possible, well that is after you apologize for sending me on a wild goose chase." Jiraiya informed her

"And why exactly would I go back to that forlorn village you pervert, they've done nothing but take things away from me while I've given my all to them." Tsunade said

Jiraiya figured he should've saw this coming, first Tsunade lost her best friend Dan Kato who was also Shizune's uncle, then she lost her kid brother Nawaki who perished in the same war as Dan. They both had dreams to become Hokage and perished chasing that dream.

Then after a drunken night Tsunade discovered she was pregnant but the village elders deemed her far too reckless to take care of a child and forcefully made her give up the child for adoption. That child, Minato Namikaze would later go on to become Hokage while Tsunade was out of the village. Believing the curse that plagued those around her was gon she decided to surprise Minato and go back to the village after hearing from Jiraiya he would be having a child of his own soon until that dreaded day happened.

Tsunade was informed that her son and his entire family including his unborn child perished during the Nine-Tails attack. That was the final straw that broke the camel's back, Tsunade fell into a deep depression that involved a bunch of gambling and alcohol until Shizune was able to put a lock on most of her money.

And now here was Jiraiya, the man who loved Tsunade his entire life, was going to tell her that her grandson in fact had not died, but was right in front of her.

' _Great Deities watch over me, Minato I think I might actually be joining you and Kushina this time.'_ Jiraiya said before gulping down his saliva and taking Tsunade down the road to where she wouldn't cause much property damage before explaining everything to her.

"Oh yeah that reminds me… are you Shizune?" Naruto asked with Tonton now resting on his head.

"Umm yes, and you are?" Shizune began

"Naruto Uzumaki, future Sixth Hokage at your service y'know!" before quickly slapping his hand over his mouth 'damn it! I've really got to get that looked at' Naruto thought before pulling out the letter Genma gave him to give to Shizune

"This is from Genma Shiranui, he told me to make sure that only your eyes saw it."

Immediately after Naruto said that he felt two emotions, anticipation coming from Shizune and pure unadulterated rage coming from his grandmother who was currently beating Jiraiya like a drum.

Five minutes later we find Naruto comforting a crying Tsunade who still couldn't believe her eyes, she wouldn't lose this one she refused. Although she agreed to return home to the Hidden Leaf she still wasn't going to take the hat from her sensei and was still trying to talk Naruto from his dreams of becoming Hokage but he simply would reply with "I won't die grandma, trust me I have too many important people in life and a village to look over soon." with his famous smile

' _One more time, I'll give it one more chance. Please don't let me be wrong this time. Grandpa, Dan, Nawaki, Minato watch over this one please.'_ "Naruto come over here for a minute"

Naruto walked up to Tsunade who who untied his headband and took out a kunai and began marking something on the inside. "Close your eyes, I don't want you to see what I wrote just yet" Tsunade told him

Complying with her request Naruto closed his eyes only to feel a pair of lips on his forehead before she tied the headband back up around his forehead and gave him the First Hokage's necklace that began to light up once around his neck. 'It has to be right this time, it has to be' Tsunade chanted to herself before making.

The group of four and one pig made their way back to the Hidden Leaf the next morning with a slightly hobbling Jiraiya.

 **And that's Chapter 2…**

 **Chapter 3 will consist of Tsunade returning to the village and being prepped for the Hokage seat, Naruto being assigned to his team along with a few of their missions, and the Chunin Exams minus the final round.**

 **Like I said before if any of you have any preferences to who you'd want Naruto to be slightly involved with romantically give me a name. I was trying to get kunoichi from different villages.**

 **I'm not all too good with fight scenes and all but I guess it just takes time and patience.**

 **I don't think you guys will be all too impressed with the Wave Country in the next chapter, but I'm willing to bet you guys will love the Chunin Exams in the same chapter.**

 **And if there's anything else you'd like to see or any suggestions you can throw out there just give a review and I'll see what I can do.**

 **Who do you all think should be the sensei of the Hidden Cloud team: Samui or Yugito?**

 **P.S.: All of the follows and favorites I received are low-key pressuring me I swear lol**

 **P.P.S.: It's going to be so much of a bitch trying to write Killer B's lines I'm thinking of leaving him out of the Chunin Exams**

 **P.P.P.S.: I'm replacing Sakura with Sai for a reason so yeah.**

 **I hope this chapter was to your liking, chapter 3 should be up soon, I already have just about all of the Chunin Exams in my head just need a tad more for the Wave Mission.**


	3. The Truth, The Reunion, The Formation

**Review Responses:**

 **Guest – Thank you and I hope you enjoy the rest**

 **BigMasetheDon – Sorry man but as a reader I've read way too much NaruHina to write a story with it. They'll share a brother/sister relationship**

 **Alvinsimon – Yes, Tsunade will be teaching Naruto medical ninjutsu along with helping him on more chakra control.**

 **frankieu – I hope you enjoy this chapter and the changes that I've brought to the Chunin Exams. Thanks for the review.**

 **Yuffikku – No it would not be, I was planning on having Kurotsuchi interact with Naruto in the Chunin Exams however I wasn't with Fuu, but I've found a way to introduce her.**

 **DragonPony022 – Thank you for the review. I was initially thinking of going with Yugito due to Karui referring to her as Yugito Sensei before but your review has helped me as well. Minato's father will be revealed later on in the story.**

 **Shadow of God – Naruto did base it on his emotions and had a hunch to who were the "good guys" and "bad guys" and the numbers difference also helped him decide to help Mei at the moment. My fault if I didn't go far enough into it.**

 **Chapter 3**

Approaching the gates were Jiraiya, Tsunade, Shizune and Naruto who was carrying Tonton the same way Kiba carried Akamaru. Jiraiya was still trying and still failing at tuning out Tsunade bombarding Naruto with questions of how he's grown up and who all he's made friends with. It really softened Jiraiya's heart to see Tsunade interacting with Naruto after everything she had been through but now he was wondering when his teammate became such a chatterbox.

Remembering the wager he made with his student Jiraiya spoke up, "Hey Naruto, did you ever finish that book? I'd like to get it before we get to sensei."

"Oh yeah…" Naruto began to fish through his pack before pulling out a small red book, "Here you go Jiraiya Sensei" Naruto handed the book.

Tsunade and Shizune were wondering what they were talking about until Naruto pulled out a small red book which looked just like the books… "Jiraiya…" Tsunade said with a dark aura around her clenching her fist, "By any chance you didn't force my grandson to read any of your smut have you?" She asked barely restraining her anger with a sweet yet deadly smile.

"What? Princess of course I wouldn't. Tell her brat this is a book you wrote yourself." Jiraiya said, externally calm but internally prepping himself to hightail it to the Hokage's Office where he'd hide behind his sensei.

"I wrote that book myself grandma, Jiraiya Sensei didn't force me to read his book but he did want me to, I didn't know he wrote books like that." Naruto replied

Now what Naruto said was the truth, he didn't know what kind of category Jiraiya's literature fell under until he read it due to Yugao always chewing out Kakashi for reading the books around Naruto. But Naruto did purposely reveal to his grandmother that he read some of Jiraiya's work just to see the man sweat a little for tricking him back in Nadeshiko.

"Oh is that right? Say Jiraiya, may I speak to you in the alley over there before we go and visit sensei?" Tsunade asked with a sweet smile before dragging him off before he could even respond.

Izumo and Kotetsu, who were dubbed the eternal chunin were not only surprised to see Tsunade back but surprised to see Jiraiya so terrified of her until they heard the ruckus that occurred in the alley after a scream of "Not in the face!". Naruto merely approached the gate guards and signed in for himself and his party.

There wasn't a welcoming party due to the fact that Jiraiya didn't want to disclose any info on when they'd return so he and Naruto could go straight to the Hokage's office.

One minute later Tsunade appeared with a disheveled looking Jiraiya slung over her back.

Arriving to the Hokage's Tower Naruto began to feel Tsunade's mix of emotions that consisted of nervousness, rage, and suspiciousness.

Upon entering the Hokage's office the party was greeted by a smiling Hiruzen who proceeded to welcome Tsunade and Shizune back to the village. Tsunade quickly responded in a nonchalant way and made sure that his offer to her becoming Fifth Hokage was a no go, to both Hiruzen and Naruto's displeasure. Hiruzen who mentally filed it away went on to tell Naruto to show up to the academy in two days as the graduation exams would be tomorrow and he'd be assigned to his team the day following. Hiruzen then looked at the slightly healing form of Jiraiya and motioned for his ANBU to erect the barriers throughout the office.

"Jiraiya I have a question for you…" Hiruzen began

"What is it sensei?"

"It has come to my knowledge that the Hidden Mist was in a civil war, almost immediately after the civil war finished our village was the first and only village to receive a peace offering from them. My question is why didn't you tell me they were at war?"

Jiraiya was mentally sweating bullets if Hiruzen found out he took a genin, even though it was Naruto, to a war and even participated in one his ass would really be grass. "Well you see sensei; I was unaware of the Hidden Mist being at war as well. They were some really cagey bastards for the past few months."

"Hmm, perhaps so. It is also to my knowledge that you took Naruto here to Nadeshiko Village as your first stop to your training trip was it not?"

Before Jiraiya could answer Tsunade put in her two cents and questioned Jiraiya. "You took my grandson to the village of domineering kunoichi? Not everyone is a masochist like you Jiraiya!" Tsunade roared

"Now princess I have my reasons, I was merely getting reacquainted with an old frie-"

"I think I legally got married over there." Naruto interjected

You could now hear a rat piss on cotton at how silent the room was.

"You… what?" Tsunade asked

"Supposedly there's some law over there that if an outsider bests a trained kunoichi in battle they have to wed with one another. I was unaware of that regulation and spoke to the village leader about it and she told me she'd only turn her cheek for the next three years or they'd come looking for me" Naruto answered

Tsunade quickly turned her attention back to Jiraiya "This was your idea huh you filthy pervert? First you have him read your books then he's fighting some amazon's student only to force him to marry her after defeating her. I think it's time I test how much sound these barriers block out." Tsunade finished but before she could deliver her second round of pain to Jiraiya she was interrupted by Hiruzen.

"Now now Tsunade I'll need Jiraiya conscious for the moment I'm still not done questioning him."

' _Today really isn't my day, First the book, then Nadeshiko, now the war, what else could happen?'_ Jiraiya asked himself

"Now Jiraiya why do I believe you and Naruto were in the Hidden Mist Village during their warring period?" Hiruzen asked with a straight face

"…"

"Jiraiya…" Hiruzen warned

"Okay the brat wanted to learn espionage and intelligence gathering skills from me so we infiltrated the village and… ended up getting separated and helping the rebellion side fight and win the war." With each work spoken Jiraiya's speech got faster and quieter

Hiruzen merely adopted a slumping posture in his seat before exhaling and replying "I thought so…" Much to everyone's surprise

"You mean I'm not in trouble sensei?" Jiraiya asked thinking the deities were finally looking out for him

"With me… no you aren't" Hiruzen began before pointing towards Tsunade "With Tsunade however, I believe you're in more than just trouble Jiraiya."

Tsunade was trembling in rage, her grandson wasn't even a grown man and had already witnessed and participated in war, already killed although she was unaware that he was assigned to kill on his second C-Rank mission that he went on with Kakashi Yugao and Asuma. As well as the incident that forced Hiruzen to reveal the truth to Naruto when he was five.

 **Flashback**

"Are you sure you want to do this dad? I mean the kid is only 10…" Asuma asked his father

"I am convinced the sooner Naruto accomplishes his first assigned kill the sooner he can get over it." Hiruzen replied

"Or the sooner it breaks him! No child should be forced to kill so soon in life when there are no signs of war!" Yugao yelled, she was about to continue a tirade before she felt Kakashi place a hand on her shoulder before shaking his head

"That is why I'm placing the three of you on his team. I believe you three can comfort him the best over his ordeal." Hiruzen said

Nobody replied which Hiruzen took as the signal the conversation was over. Hiruzen then sent ANBU to retrieve Naruto from his apartment much to Yugao's restrained ire.

Naruto went on his first C-Rank mission to Tea Country alongside Asuma Izumo and Kotetsu who all merely volunteered as they had nothing better to do and knew Naruto could easily entertain them. The mission was to exchange documents with a few dignitaries and return to the village which went real smooth. The only fighting that occurred on the mission was Naruto sparring against Asuma as well as Asuma roughing Naruto up a bit for his shadow clones throwing his last pack of cigarettes in a lake. All in all, the mission was in-and-out.

Now he was receiving his second C-Rank mission which he heard was going to be over in the Fire Country Capital. Arriving to the Hokage's office Naruto was surprised at who all was going to accompany him on the mission.

On their way to the Fire Capital Yugao was practically silent, still a bit miffed her little brother would have to take a life even if it deserved to be ended so soon. Asuma was bit grumpy, seeing he already had to return back to the capital after he got through saving the Daimyo's keister in the coup d'état . Kakashi was also quiet but that was a given since he was reading his book, Kakashi had mixed feelings about Naruto killing so soon, he had taken his first life by the age of seven and it affected him more than he let on.

Kakashi then came to the conclusion that he'd do something uncharacteristic, disobey a direct order. They were all told not to inform Naruto of the mission until they arrived at the jail. Slyly lifting the headband from in front of his left eye kakashi tapped Naruto on the shoulder before using _**Genjutsu: Sharingan**_

One minute Naruto was wondering why everyone was in a bad mood the next minute he was floating in a yellow sky in front of Kakashi who had a no nonsense look about himself.

"I'm going to be honest with you Naruto; during this mission you are going to have to kill someone. Lord Hokage believes it would be best for you to get your first objective kill out of the way sooner than later." Kakashi informed his little brother

Naruto was slightly surprised at what Kakashi told him however looking back at whom all was assigned on his team it made sense; all of Kakashi's missions were B-Rank at the least. Yugao has been on leave for ANBU for quite a while now, and Asuma who may be just returning to the village but was one of the stronger jonins lower to Kakashi and a few others.

"I guess that makes sense, well let's get it over with."

Kakashi was surprised at Naruto's reaction, what happened to the kid who said he'd never kill anybody if they could always be incapacitated and captured?

"Don't worry Kakashi, even though I didn't mean it I remember what happened before Grandpa Hokage told me everything. I'll be fine y'know! I have you Yugao and Uncle Asuma in my corner." Naruto finished

Kakashi released the genjustu and tucked his headband back above his eye and ruffled Naruto's hair the same way his father and sensei ruffled his.

Finally reaching the jail in the Capital, Naruto and a grumpy Asuma found an official and informed them of Naruto's mission before leading them to a cell where a man who ran a slave and sex ring was held. He was a burly man, looked as if he wasn't the kind of person who worried too much about hygiene, with his yellowing teeth, chin stubble and multiple scars and tattoos.

Naruto entered the room with a kunai in hand and looked at the man who was annoyed that they were going to let a mere child kill him. Naruto approached the man but not before being spat on by said man who already accepted he would die so he began to berate Naruto.

Yugao was all for killing this man and letting Naruto kill someone else the moment she saw the man spit on her little brother.

Naruto had to admit that he was slightly angered by the man's actions but chalked it up to him being scum. Flowing a bit of chakra through his kunai as he was only in his second month of training he quickly ended the man's life with two swift slices. One to the man's… nether regions and the other one to his jugular. At the moment Naruto felt nothing until he looked into the man's fading eyes.

Upon exiting the room Naruto was immediately hugged by Yugao who said if he ever needed to talk about it that they were there for him. Naruto merely said everything was fine and he'd talk to them if he need to, although Naruto never talked to them about it he did have dreams about it for the next three weeks.

 **End of Flashback**

"Jiraiya you moron! What were you thinking taking a child to a warring area?" Tsunade bellowed

"If you want to blame someone blame the brat! He was the one who snuck off when he was supposed to be with me." Jiraiya gulped the minute he finished speaking as Tsunade had that special glint in her eyes.

Before dealing out punishment to Jiraiya Tsunade turned to her grandson and scolded him for running off into a dangerous area like that before dismissing him by asking "Don't you have some friends you need to catch up with?"

"Oh yeah, well I'll see you guys later" Naruto said after pulling Tonton from out of his hoodie and going off in the direction towards the Uchiha Compound.

By the time Naruto was outside the Uchiha compound he could've sworn he saw Jiraiya running on the Hokage's Monument with a hobble in his step.

As soon as he walked into the main home in the Uchiha Compound Naruto was crushed in a hug by Mikoto who asked him how long he had been back.

"For about an hour now, say, where is everybody?" He asked eyeing the empty house

"Itachi should be returning from his mission early in the morning, Fugaku is outside feeding the fish and Sayuri is out training" Mikoto sighed and put on a tiresome expression "I don't know about that girl, she's happy one moment and not in the mood for anything the next."

"Sounds just like Sayuri to me, hehe, well I'm going to go and try to find her" Naruto said exiting the house

"Make sure you two are back before dawn, I'm cooking dinner and want you to tell me all about your trip okay?" Mikoto yelled out of the window

"Yes ma'am! We'll be back on time" Naruto replied even louder

Naruto began to walk through the training grounds looking for Sayuri but found no sight of her. He decided to stop walking around and try his hand at sensing out her emotions or anyone else's to see if he could find her.

Little did Naruto know in the trees above him there were charcoal eyes glaring at the back of his head.

' _Now I got you'_ the figure started before flashing through hand signs _**'Fire Style: Fire Ball Jutsu'**_

As soon as Naruto picked up on the emotion of satisfaction not too far from him he saw a large ball of fire coming directly at him. Quickly going on the defensive he burrowed his way underground with the _**Hidden Mole Jutsu**_

Sayuri stepped out from the trees and began to look around for him thinking he somehow got the drop on her and went into the trees. Looking around she noticed that the ground underneath her felt slightly lighter before a hand shot up and grabbed her by the ankles.

Sayuri didn't know what to expect as the hands merely held her in place, she began to reach for a kunai in her kunai pouch to stab at the hands before a hand grabbed her own and maneuvered it to where she had her own kunai pointed to her stomach with another hand wrapped around her placed on her stomach where the kunai was pointed.

"Hehe, you really came close there." The voice behind her said

She froze as soon as she heard the voice and put two and two together. Then she noticed that if that was Naruto's voice than those were Naruto's hands holding her as well. Sayuri was quick to say her heart pace accelerated due to the kunai being pointed at herself instead of Naruto's hands being wrapped around her.

Turning a dangerous shade of red Sayuri didn't even realize the hands that were holding her in place poofed away in a plume of smoke. Placing her kunai back in its pouch slightly upset that even though she was able to catch him before he did her she still wasn't able to capitalize.

Turning around to face Naruto she was caught off guard to see he had his hand extended to her in a greeting gesture with that stupid smile on his face.

"Naruto Uzumaki, future Sixth Hokage of the Hidden Leaf y'know!" Naruto announced

' _What sort of idiot is he? I know who he is and what he wants to be already'_ Sayuri thought

"I already know who you are and what you want to accomplish Naruto…" she said

Naruto kept his hand extended before responding "But what do you want to accomplish in life?" he asked

Then it came back to her, there first time meeting each other, when she saw him as a milestone to be passed and not a potential significant other.

" _Naruto Uzumaki, future Sixth Hokage" she remembered him saying with a wide grin on his face. She replied "Sayuri Uchiha, future Uchiha clan head and… well I don't know what else right now"_

"Hn, Sayuri Uchiha, future Uchiha clan head as well as the future Police Force's first female captain." She replied with confidence.

"So you finally have another goal huh? That's a pretty cool one to. I know! I'll help you as much as I can so you can reach it so we'll both be figures of importance together y'know!"

"Hn, who says I'll need your help to get there?" _'Although I wouldn't mind the together part in all honesty'_ Sayuri kept to herself

Naruto inwardly smirked before replying "Well I think you'll need a little help if you couldn't even get the drop on me."

Sayuri went from daydreaming to fuming in less than a second.

"So what, you got lucky that's all!"

"I should start gambling then, seeing that I've been getting lucky ever since I've been a genin" _'Two birds, one shot'_ Naruto thought

Now Sayuri was mad, who did this kid think he was? So what he's been a genin for about two years now? So what she still had yet to beat him in a single contest? It's not like he's unbeatable, he's just so damn…

"Ugh!" Sayuri said before turning to storm off only to be grabbed by her wrist

Turning around she threw a punch and what do you know, it connected and pretty hard.

Naruto dropped to the ground and laid there for about five seconds before poofing away in another cloud of smoke.

' _What the hell is going on?'_ Sayuri thought

"I meant to ask you, what's your chakra affinity? You never wrote me back after I sent you the chakra paper I came across" Naruto asked as if he wasn't just laid out on the ground a few seconds ago.

"What are you doing up there you were just down here next to me?"

"Those were shadow clones, and I've got to admit that it's my favorite jutsu. Now what's your chakra affinity? I want to know if I can help you."

"It's lightning and I don't want any help with it. I'm going to stick to using fire, I don't know why you sent that thing anyways, and anybody could've seen it was faulty."

The day Sayuri did the test she did it in front of her family to show them, upon finding out her chakra affinity was lightning she studied her family for different expressions. Itachi was surprised, it was well known that Itachi was the best water style user in the Uchiha clan and now his little sister is naturally a lightning style user. Her mother was impressed and said that perhaps she could pay Kakashi to assist her in her training, going as far to state Kakashi was the best lightning style user as well as having the sharingan. Then she looked at her father, his appearance showed no emotion, almost as if he wasn't impressed or cared in the slightest. He merely kept his eyes on the paper before nodding towards her and exiting the house. After that Sayuri went to her room to where she ripped up the chakra paper and forgot to inscribe a letter back to Naruto.

Jumping down and landing near Sayuri Naruto began to rub his chin in a pondering gesture before retorting "Lightning huh? Hmm, that's not all too Uchiha like"

Sayuri came to the conclusion that Naruto had become an asshole over his trip and was ready to clock him or his shadow clone again before he carried on talking.

"Well then again, you are pretty special…"

"…what did you just say?" Sayuri asked with not much volume in her voice

"I said you're pretty special, oh and congratulations on awakening your sharingan" Naruto said looking into her eyes

The whole time Naruto was teasing her she unconsciously activated her sharingan which she was saving for a surprise for their first spar to catch him off guard. She currently had two tomoe in her left eye and one tomoe in her right.

"thank… you, I trained really hard for it" Sayuri said still quiet

"Don't mention it, c'mon your mom said she wanted me to bring you back home before dawn so we could have dinner and I can tell you guys all about my trip." Naruto said before grabbing onto her hand slightly pulling her forward until she began to walk on her own,

The rest of the night was nothing but Naruto telling jokes talking about his travels with Jiraiya and complimenting Mikoto's cooking before leaving to go visit the Hyugas.

Now we find Naruto and Sayuri sitting beside each other in the academy like they were two years ago before Naruto's surprise promotion.

"Whoa, were the tables and chairs always this small?" Naruto asked squirming around trying to get comfortable

"No you just got bigger" Sayuri shot at him

"Hmm, I guess so, Jiraiya Sensei made sure I ate plenty of vegetables during the trip."

Naruto hadn't grown much taller but he was currently the tallest person in his age group. Later on the rest of the graduating class plus a random pale kid with short black hair along with a long sleeve shirt that exposed his stomach entered the room followed by Iruka Umino.

"Well class it's with great pleasure that I inform you all that you are taking the next step on the shinobi road which won't be an easy one, but with your loved ones and plenty of training it will all be possible. Now I will begin naming the squads for this year starting with squad 10 and moving down with squads 6-1 being reserved for the civilians." Iruka began

"Squad 10 will be Choji Akimichi, Shikamaru Nara and Ino Yamanaka under the tutelage of Asuma Sarutobi."

There was a shout of displeasure from Ino at being paired with a glutton and a lazy genius. Said lazy genius quietly voiced the mutuality in the situation asking why he was paired with such a loudmouth.

"Squad 9 is still in rotation so we'll move on to Squad 8"

"Squad 8 will be Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuga and Kiba Inuzuka under the tutelage of Kurenai Yuhi"

Hinata was looking forward to teaming up with Naruto but wasn't displeased with her comrades. Shino sat there with his stoic visage while Kiba hollered about being the only fighter on his team.

"Squad 7 will be Sai Shimura, Sayuri Uchiha, and Naruto Uzumaki under the tutelage of Kakashi Hatake"

"No way why are Sayuri and Naruto on the same team!" Kiba yelled

"Our apologies Naruto it seems Lord Hokage forgot you were supposed to be placed on a team and put you with sSquad 7 in the last minute."

"No worries Iruka Sensei…" Naruto trailed off now looking at Sai who had a stoic appearance that could rival both the Hyuga and Aburame.

' _Who the hell is he? Shimura, I haven't heard of that name in a long time. Aren't they a clan?_ Naruto thought

"Your teachers will be here to pick you all up in a while, now on to Squad 6…"

At that Naruto began to tune Iruka out as he studied Sai

"He joined the academy at the last second and passed the graduation exam as well as another test, he doesn't speak to anyone though. All he does is smile and draw." Sayuri told Naruto noticing him study their new teammate.

Meanwhile in the Hokage's Office Hiruzen was wondering what Danzo was planning. He 'adopted' a child from the orphanage with the hopes of placing him in ROOT only to find he wasn't cut out for it and placed him in the academy where he had no problem passing any test. Hiruzen unfortunately couldn't do anything about it without drawing too much attention to the situation so he made sure to assign Naruto to the team as well to watch over the boy.

Two hours later back in the classroom Sayuri was really done waiting on this guy who was supposed to be their sensei.

' _Uncle Obito's teammate be damned! If he keeps this up I'll ask for another sensei'_ Sayuri thought before her stomach growled out loud. She hadn't had much to eat this morning as she was supposed to be celebrating with her family, and hopefully Naruto, after her team placement.

Hearing her stomach growl caused to laugh and Sayuri to blush in embarrassment, right before she could go off on him a shadow clone came through the window with bentos filled with onigiri.

"Just a little something to hold our guts seeing somebody couldn't wait" Naruto said with a grin flashing a wink towards Sayuri.

"Whatever, idiot…and thank you." Sayuri said

Almost an hour later Kakashi arrived and had his team meet on the roof of the academy where they gave out introductions.

"Well I guess I'll start, my name is Kakashi Hatake, my likes and dislikes are none of your business. My hobbies, hmm…I have a few of them. And my dreams? Well I have yet to come up with one.

'Real smooth Bakashi' Naruto thought

"Alright how about we start with you" Kakashi said pointing at Sayuri

"My name is Sayuri Uchiha, my likes are…well most of my loved ones. My dislikes won't be disclosed with this team; my hobbies are training and practicing yoga along with meditation. My goals are to become both the head of my clan as well as the Police Force's first female captain." Sayuri finished

"Hmm, pretty admiring" Kakashi said before pointing to Naruto

"Naruto Uzumaki, future Sixth Hokage y'know! My likes are food, my loved ones as well as the village, my dislikes hmm…whenever I run out of food I guess. Oh and when adults think they know everything just because they have more wrinkles than me. My hobbies include creating jutsu as well as training and swimming. My goal is not a goal but a deed I will fulfill and that's to become Sixth Hokage and protect the Leaf." Naruto finished with a large smile.

"Pretty high standards, but possible" Kakashi acknowledged, not showing any favoritism

"…"

"You can speak now." Kakashi said

"My name is Sai, Sai Shimura. I have no likes or dislikes, my hobby is drawing. I have no goals nor do I admire to have one." Sai finished with a fake smile

' _Hmm, he isn't lying…just who is this guy?'_ Naruto thought

"Well you truly are different Sai. Tomorrow we will be meeting at Training Ground 7 at 6 o'clock in the morning, where I will issue you a survival test and if you all are to pass we will be Squad 7 of the Leaf. If you don't pass…well I just may have you dropped from the program if I deem you all unworthy, by the way you shouldn't eat any breakfast, which is unless you wish to heave it back up." Kakashi said with an eye smile before poofing away.

The next morning we find Sayuri and Sai at Training Ground 7 awaiting their final teammate and student who were both running an hour late.

' _Where the hell are they? They're doing nothing but wasting my time, and to think those two are supposed to be two of the strongest ninja in their age group. Ugh!'_ Sayuri mentally screamed

Twenty minutes later Naruto showed up with another pair of bentos and handed one to Sai before handing the other one to Sayuri.

"What the hell took you so long you loser?" Sayuri snapped

"Hehe, would you believe me if I told you I merely lost track of time." Naruto asked

That wasn't a lie, Naruto sent his shadow clone to go pick up food half an hour ago while he went to retrieve Kakashi from his self-loathing ritual at the graveyard. The clone went to go pick up some food and stopped to play with Konohamaru and friends before he noticed the sun was beginning to rise.

"You lost track, of time?" Sayuri asked in a threating tone "Kakashi said we were supposed to be here at 6 o'clock, I've been here for damn near two hours and the minute you get here you come up with an excuse as lame as losing trac-"

Sayuri stopped talking and activated her piercing sharingan on her crush whom she wanted to strangle and couldn't really tell a difference in Naruto's chakra. Sai who had been watching the exchange was surprised at what he saw next, with two swift movements Sayuri detached Naruto's head from his shoulders only for him to poof away.

' _That little…son of a BITCH! HE WAS A CLONE THIS ENTIRE TIME? THAT'S IT I'VE MADE MY DECISION NARUTO UZUMAKI, I'M GOING TO THROTTLE YOU WITH ONE HAND AND POUND YOU WITH THE OTHER! FUTURE HOKAGE AND HUSBAND BE DAMNED, YOU'RE GOING TO BE SORRY WHEN YOU CROSS PATHS WITH ME.'_ Sayuri was ready to go postal

Meanwhile at the graveyard Naruto received his clone's memories and his eyes widened. "You know Kakashi I think they can wait a tad longer, umm I'm going to go talk to dad." Naruto said before walking

' _Hmm, what's gotten into him? Oh well where was I Rin?'_ Kakashi then went on to talk to Rin for another half hour before telling Naruto it was time to go

"Ah, don't you just love the smell of jutsu in the morning, smells a lot lik-"

"Dog piss, Akamaru's been pissing practically everywhere; I've almost stepped into his little jutsu three times on the way here." Naruto interrupted Kakashi who did smell the puppy's liquid but wasn;t going to acknowledge it as it didn't bother him much

Sayuri whose head immediately snapped up towards the trees made eye contact with Naruto with her sharingan. "Naruto, a word if you may?"

"No thank you I choose life for the moment…"

Clearing his throat to bring back their undivided attention Kakashi went over their test and set the timer for three hours before commencing the test and watching everyone scatter.

In the trees Naruto found Sayuri but sent a shadow clone because hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Sayuri immediately shot down his idea to work together since he didn't take it serious enough to be on time, but not before killing his clone with a quick stab.

' _Well I should've seen that coming, did she have to kill him though?'_ Naruto thought _'Now where is Sai, perhaps he'd be more willing to join me…'_

After searching for Sai for 10 minutes and not even picking up a trace of him or any emotions Naruto decided to go and confront Kakashi who had just used his _**Earth Style: Headhunter Jutsu**_ on Sayuri.

Naruto quickly used _**Wind Style: Vacuum Bullets**_ to separate Kakashi from Sayuri who he was standing directly in front of. Sayuri closed her eyes and hoped the jutsu wouldn't catch her and was surprised to see her hair barely blowing with the sharp winds that passed her and the holes in the ground at where Kakashi was standing.

Now Naruto was standing in front of her looking at her with the 'I told you so' look to which she just returned with a scowl before turning her head away.

"Are you really going to be that obstinate?" Naruto asked to get nothing but another head turn in reply. "Well you're lucky; I'd be lying if I said I didn't like your adamant behavior at times. Really makes you admirable y'know." Naruto said but before he pulled her out of the ground an idea popped in his head

' _Exactly how many chances will I get to do this?'_ he thought

Approaching Sayuri closely Naruto bent down to get at the same level as her as if he was going to pick her up but leaned forward as if he were going to kiss her before he took a whiff of her hair.

Sayuri the entire time was in panic mode, she couldn't move and whenever he got into her personal space she couldn't find the words to speak. Sayuri closed her eyes and leaned forward herself until she noticed that his head went to her side and he took a whiff of her hair.

' _What the…what the hell is he doing? Is he really smelling my hair at a time like this?'_ Sayuri thought

' _I don't care what Sayuri says about her not being a girly girl, whatever shampoo she uses is perfect.'_ Naruto thought before picking her up feeling her emotions were inclining to the negative side

"Well you're welcome got a plan to catch Kakashi?" Naruto asked

"Yeah follow my lead weirdo" Sayuri replied before jumping off

' _Would it kill you to just accept a compliment and keep it moving?'_ Naruto internally questioned

Naruto and Sayuri were now both combatting Kakashi and taijutsu and were holding their own against the jonin although he wasn't using his sharingan. Kakashi had his focus on the two genin until he noticed he stepped into a puddle of ink.

'Ink? What the…' Kakashi immediately remembered what Sai said during introductions. _"My name is Sai, Sai Shimura. I have no likes or dislikes, my hobby is drawing. I have no goals nor do I admire to have one." 'Ink, can he use it in his ninjutsu?'_ Kakashi thought before receiving a right from Naruto

"Goodness, looks like I'll have to step it up a tad." Kakashi said before revealing his sharingan.

"You aren't the only one stepping it up then sensei… _**Gate of Opening: Release!"**_ Naruto yelled

'What? Damn it Guy…' Kakashi thought before avoiding one of Naruto's swift attacks

Meanwhile although Sayuri could keep up with the fight from her eyes she knew that her body couldn't she was snapped out of her thoughts when Naruto yelled at her.

"Sayuri go for the bells, I'll cover you but you need to hurry. This thing won't last forever and Kakashi Sensei is holding up well."

Sayuri once again dashed out for Kakashi who pulled out a kunai only to be intercepted by Naruto, Sayuri kept reaching for the bell only for Kakashi to avoid her at the last second until she feigned going for the bell and threw a roundhouse kick at him, which he caught. Bending her body in a inhumane like motion, Sayuri reached both of the bells and grabbed onto one until Kakashi kicked her away.

Scratching her head after landing on the ground Sayuri was ready to go off on Naruto for not covering her only to find him panting on one knee.

' _Whatever jutsu that was he used wore out, damn it we don't have much time left. Where the hell is Sai?'_ Sayuri thought until she heard the bell go off.

"Hmm? Well I guess time truly does go by when you're having fun huh?" Kakashi said rolling his headband back down to cover his eye.

' _That's odd; I thought I fell into one of Sai's traps. Where is he?'_ Kakashi thought before two blurs ran past him and snatched the bells tied to his belt.

"Well I give you guys credit for getting the bells but you were supposed to do it before the bell rang." Kakashi stated

"But we did sensei Naruto said, standing upright as if he caught a second wind."

Sai who was holding up the timer lifted his hand in the sign of confrontation before adding chakra to it showing he placed a genjutsu on the timer and there was actually ten minutes left.

'What, tricked by a bunch of kids? Goodness Kakashi, it's time to put the books down and really get back to training' Kakashi thought

"Wait, you two came up with a plan without me?" Sayuri asked almost sounding hurt

"When Uzumaki attempted to ask for your aid you shot his request down without hesitation, I decided to take matters into my own hands." Sai said before turning towards Naruto "He simply followed me and caught onto my plan."

"Wait but you looked like you were going to keel ov-"

"I was just bluffing; I had to make it look believable that I was tired so I opened the initial gate."

"Well I must commend you two, congratulations. Sayuri you've also done a good job but due to the fact you couldn't get a bell I'll show leniency and just send you back to the academy." Kakashi announced before Naruto tossed his bell to Sayuri

Sayuri was surprised when Naruto practically forfeited his right to be on the team.

"Didn't I tell you I'll cover you? I'll always have your back Sayuri, don't worry" Naruto reassured her

"Although I must admit that you were foolish for turning down one's request without delay, you've proven yourself to be a formidable comrade with more training. Perhaps you could be of assistance to this team." Sai said in a very robotic like fashion

Kakashi eye smiled at his students and announced that they were now truly Squad 7 and explained the meaning of the test before telling them they'd be starting D-Rank missions tomorrow.

Sayuri began to walk home until Naruto cut her off saying that they were going to celebrate becoming a team. Naruto asked Sai if he wished to join but he refused stating he had matters to take care of.

Later on over the next two months Squad 7 handled D-Rank missions by the load. On one certain D-Rank mission of painting fences Kakashi began to ask Naruto why he never got tired of doing them.

"They don't bother me all too much in all honesty. Yeah I feel we'll need actual experience in the field later on but a paycheck is a paycheck y'know." Naruto said

"So you only look forward to the income and not the mission itself?" Sai asked

"Not really, well when it comes to D-Ranks I guess, I mean I've made over 12 Million ryo in D-Ranks." Naruto said as if that amount wasn't large

Everyone stared at him with wide eyes and Kakashi remembered when he saw Naruto's rep sheet before he left with Jiraiya.

'That's right 456 D-Rank missions and 12 C-Rank missions in just his first year. Truly amazing…' Kakashi thought before resuming his book

Later on in Hokage's office Kakashi requested his team get a C-Rank mission stating he believed they were mature enough. The Hokage called in the client who appeared to be a drunkard who disliked that his bodyguards were children. Kakashi dismissed the man's complaining and informed his team to pack for a month.

Squad 7 or Team Kakashi met at the gates an hour later and left on their way to Wave Country to escort their client as well as watch over him building the bridge. After an hour of travel Kakashi was ambushed by two rogue ninja who shredded him with a chain of shuriken.

His team not even phased at what happened quickly advanced on the two rogue ninja and incapacitated them within two minutes. Kakashi came out and announced the mission was over seeing that the client lied to him until Gato explained his country's financial problems along with Gato terrorizing them. Kakashi nonchalantly waved him off before Naruto convinced him along with his teammates that they could help Tazuna out now and receive pay from him when the bridge brings in enough money as well as free his country from Gato's oppression.

They continued their way to wave after Kakashi made sure to send for ANBU to collect the rogue ninja now identified as the Demon Brothers.

Later on Squad 7 ran into a thick fog that Sayuri alerted them was filled with chakra, and then it happened. Killing intent by the boatloads weighed down on Team Kakashi. Sai who was even caught off guard had to wait a few seconds to gather himself. Sayuri who never experienced killing intent so heavy began to find it hard to stand until Naruto approached her from behind and released his own killing intent which somehow soothed her in knowing he had her back.

The fight that occurred in Canon is the same fight that occurs here except this time Sai moves to protect the bridge builder so he can observe Naruto's skills.

Kakashi and co. later showed up to Tazuna's home and met his daughter and grandson who Naruto and Sayuri immediately labeled as a brat due to his behavior. Upon waking up Kakashi informed his team that he believed Zabuza was still alive and was in league with the hunter ninja.

Naruto came up with an idea of confronting Zabuza and telling him about the Mist's current situation and how his crimes can easily be forgiven seeing how the Fourth Mizukage's reign was over. Kakashi agreed to the plan but only if he was also present during the talk.

Meanwhile at a warehouse stood four men, one short and covered by two others who appeared to be bodyguards and the other tall with dark green hair and a mask on with two swords strapped across his back diagonally.

"So have we come to an agreement, you kill Zabuza and get paid and kill whoever else protects the bridge builder as bonus, capiche?" the short man, Gato asked

"Oh yes, we're in a perfect agreement, it's about time I've met back up with Zabuza" The figure said before disappearing in a blob of water

The same figure met up with three individuals and relayed a plan to them stating whoever got in his way he deemed unworthy were to be taken out.

Later on throughout the week Kakashi trained his students in sensing out chakra as well as dealing with killing intent seeing as they could've been killed had Zabuza not been toying with them. The week also consisted of Naruto and Inari, Tazuna's grandson having arguments to which one escalated to Naruto cursing Inari out for being ungrateful and storming out of Tazuna's house.

Passed out in the forest Naruto began to stir feeling someone agitate his shoulder. Waking up Naruto saw what he deemed one of the most beautiful girls he had ever seen, but quickly filed that away seeing that her emotions were slightly hostile. Naruto later came to the conclusion that she was the hunter ninja working with Zabuza. Naruto cut to the chase and informed the now named Haku about the Hidden Mist's current state and even told her to tell Zabuza that a lady by the name of Mei Terumi was in charge now.

Haku was shocked how much this stranger wanted to see her and Zabuza have a life in the Mist and confirmed she would talk to Zabuza about what he told her and went on to explain her tale of how she came across Zabuza and why they do what they do. Naruto went on to tell Haku of how he also grew up lonely but came to have people who truly cared for him and stated he wanted Haku to experience that feeling and never lose it.

"Well I can promise you Haku, once we get this all cleared up you and Zabuza can go back to the Mist and live as happily as you can." Naruto said

"thank you Naruto Uzumaki…" Haku said before lunging at him in kissing him on the lips

Naruto's eyes went wide, sure he could read emotions but he couldn't see the future.

"th- that was just if Zabuza doesn't see eye-to-eye with this deal." Haku declared

"…umm yeah, right" Naruto said still frozen from the kiss

Then Haku leaned forward again and kissed him once more

"And that was because it felt right; I really hope the next time I see you is as a comrade and not an enemy Naru." Haku said to the even more frozen Naruto

Sayuri who was off in the distance heard the entire conversation and was now seething, who was this harlot and why was she kissing and going all googly-eyed over Naruto?

Naruto who then felt her emotions turned in her direction not even aware that Haku had now gone back to talk with Zabuza.

"Fraternizing with the enemies Uzumaki?" Sayuri asked highly pissed

"Umm I was just trying to-"

"Save it, I came here to tell you we're supposed to accompany Tazuna on the bridge in three days, Kakashi is already starting to feel better." Sayuri interrupted

"Really, well that's g-"

Before Naruto could finish Sayuri jumped off in the direction back towards Tazuna's house.

' _Aw man, I hope this doen't mess up the team dynamic too bad'_ Naruto thught before jumping in the same direction as Sayuri.

Three days later we find Team Kakashi at the bridge overlooking Tazuna's work silently until a mist clouded the area.

'Damn it Zabuza I thought you'd see through with th- no wait this chakra feels slightly different and there's more than two of them this time.' Naruto thought before acting

"Kakashi Sensei this isn't Zabuza! This is a whole new opponent, and there are four of them!" Naruto informed his captain

"Well well well, what do we have here, a sensory type ninja? Ooh la la, a swordsman, or should I say swordswoman. Tell me girly, how good are you with that blade of yours?" The voice echoed in the mist before continuing "Don't worry I intend on finding out on my own, I just hope you're worthwhile a proper burial." It finished

Out of the mist jumped three individuals in identical clothing wearing what seemed to be claws on their hands. Kakashi Naruto and Sai cut them all off before the masked man launched his attack on Sayuri.

"Who are you? Are you in league with Zabuza?" Sayuri questioned

"Me? In league with that cast-off? Never I'm merely here to handle you all then him." The tall man said activating lightning chakra through his swords and shocking Sayuri.

"Sai!" Kakashi ordered

"Right" Sai responded then jumped in front of Tazuna to protect him

"Naruto hurry up and finish off your opponent and assist Sayuri, I'll take care of the two on the left" Kakashi said

"Right" Naruto went on to attack the one singled out and bombarded him with shadow clones.

The only thing helping the ninja that Naruto was fighting was the fact that he was used to fighting under the _**Hidden Mist Jutsu**_ while this was merely Naruto's second time fighting in it.

After another five minutes of combat Naruto decided it was time to end this fight as Sayuri was really struggling against her opponent. Flashing through hand signs Naruto ended by slamming his palm on the ground shouting _**Summoning Jutsu.**_

Out of the plume of smoke came Jiraiya's personal summons Gama, who immediately began to gather chakra and spat out a high volume of Toad oil that Naruto complimented with his _**Fire Style: Flame Bombs.**_

His opponent was scorched in seconds and he sent Gama to help Kakashi so he could hurry and assist him alongside Sayuri.

Haku who was walking through town gathering more food and medicines for Zabuza noticed the marketplace wasn't active as the townspeople began to flee home due to the battle on the bridge, knowing it wasn't Zabuza out there fighting she went to go scope it out and hoped Naruto wasn't involved.

The sight Naruto walked in on was a slightly twitching Sayuri with her sharingan activated now with two tomoe in each eye and her clothes slightly singed. The man who was no longer masked was identified as Raiga Kurosuki and was going in for the kill before Sayuri felt a pull in her gut and noticed that although she was still on one knee she was in a different spot.

Confused she heard the sound of liquid spilling at a constant rate and turned her head to see Naruto with two swords pierced through him, one through his stomach and the other through his chest while he stabbed Raiga in the stomach as well with a wind-enhanced kunai. Sayuri couldn't look away and saw that the light in Naruto's eyes were fading and fast.

Raiga was outraged not only this child interrupted his fight but was able to damage him, "Damn you brat" he said before slightly twisting the swords causing Naruto to cough up a mouthful of blood. "You aren't even worth the proper burial, sleep with the fish you brat" Raiga spat before kicking Naruto off of his blades and into the water.

Sayuri, who was still stunned at what happened looked at Naruto and saw that he fell short of falling off of the bridge and heard him say

"Sayuri…I told you…I'll always have your…back. Now go and… go and finish this guy off already." Naruto said giving her a weak smile before closing his eyes and dropping his smile.

' _No…no no no no no no no! NO!'_ Sayuri thought to herself seeing Naruto no longer moving until Raiga kicked him into the water like a brick.

"Finish me off eh? Was this your boyfriend or something girly?" Raiga questioned

Sayuri didn't respond, she just faced Raiga with closed eyes until she opened them now revealing three tomoe in each eye before muttering "die"

" _ **Genjutsu: Sharingan!"**_ Sayuri yelled and Raiga immediately felt as if he was being crucified and couldn't move

' _What the hell… what is this? Why can't I move?'_ Raiga thought not even being able to speak out loud due to the magnitude of the genjutsu

Sayuri calmly walked forward and grabbed the kunai that was still lodged in Raiga's stomach before removing it in a twisting motion and repeatedly stabbing him in the upper body while yelling "You took him away from me" over and over. By the time she was done Raiga no longer had a chest or neck and if it weren't for her arms getting tired he'd barely have a face.

Meanwhile Haku was underwater swimming to Naruto's body to retrieve it. She saw the entire ordeal and cursed herself for freezing and possibly losing the boy she believed to be her love and savior from the life she lived with Zabuza.

After bringing him back up and performing medical ninjutsu on him she noticed his body started to warm up as well as the wounds began to close but he was still motionless.

Inside of his mindscape Kurama was berating Naruto for being so reckless and throwing himself in danger's path for an Uchiha of all things.

" **I'd rather you gone and jump in front of those wretched Toads instead of those red-eyed fan-waving mongrels."** Kurama seethed, his jailer would essentially give his life away for the same clansmen as the man who took control of him on more than one occasion. **"And I actually believed you were worthy to learn my name, I should let you die boy. Seeing as you didn't mind dying for an Uchiha of all people, those accursed eyes. But I'll allow you to regain consciousness, but you'll be in a world of pain alright. Don't let it happen again you daft simian"** Kurama roared

Naruto merely took all of Kurama's berating seeing as if it wasn't the moment to argue with Kurama and his beliefs. Naruto merely wanted to wake up and make sure everybody was alright.

Naruto woke up the next day to find himself in Tazuna's house with Sai standing guard at the door drawing. Standing up he proceeded to walk towards the door surprising Sai who believed he should be fast asleep. He asked Sai what happened and after being bought up to speed about everything began to make his way downstairs with Sai helping as a human crutch.

Gato ended up being killed by Zabuza the second he caught word of him hiring Raiga Kurosuki, Kakashi was able to take out the other two ninja accompanying Raiga and Sayuri finished Raiga off herself.

Haku was the first one to lay eyes on Naruto and his teammate coming down the stairs. She was ended up taken prisoner by Kakashi but stated she had no problem as she only wants to help Naruto return back to his previous health in any way possible. Sai sat Naruto down across from Kakashi and Haku who began to wonder how he was already up.

About ten minutes later Sayuri came barreling in the house saying Zabuza was outside with four other ninja. Upon walking outside Kakashi and co. saw that Zabuza was accompanied by hunter ninja who were escorting him and Haku back to the Hidden Mist where they could start over under the reign of a new Mizukage.

Two weeks later Squad 7 was setting back out to the Hidden Leaf village and overheard the villagers shouting the bridge being named The Great Bridge of Hope.

Upon returning back to the village and getting chewed out by the Hokage for continuing the mission Team Kakashi took a one week break and decided to stick with D-Ranks for the next month before taking two C-Ranks that went smoothly.

Meanwhile in a crowded Hokage's office there was almost uproar at what was a new discovery.

"What do you mean all five of the great nations are participating in the Chunin Exams? The Hidden Rock hasn't wanted anything to do with us since the Third Great Ninja War!" Tsunade demanded

"I'm aware of this Tsunade, we will not turn them down but we shall be wary of them. But we have more important matters to attend to…Jiraiya?" Hiruzen called

"Right, it's to my knowledge that one of the villages participating in the Chunin Exams, the Hidden Sound, is actually ran by Orochimaru. I'm sure we all know what to expect if Orochimaru is coming back to here so I say we set up house and show everyone why the Hidden Leaf has never lost a war." Jiraiya said

For the next 20 minutes it was constant back-and-forth before Hiruzen called forward the jonin senseis and asked if they'd be recommending their teams for the Chunin Exams given the circumstances. After Squads 7-10 were approved for the Chunin Exams the teachers headed off in different directions to locate their teams.

 **And that's Chapter 3**

 **Like I said earlier, the Wave Mission wouldn't be all that special I'm really just trying to get to the Chunin Exams in all honesty.**

 **The following villages will compete in the Chuni Exams: Konoha, Suna, Kumo, Iwa, Kiri, Ame, Kusa, Taki, Oto, Shimo, Ishi, Jomae, Moya, and Tani.**

 **Shimo: Frost (located between Hot Water Country and Lightning Country who are their affiliate)**

 **Ishi: Stone (Surrounded by Wind, Earth, Key Country and Ame (affiliate to Iwa))**

 **Jomae: Keys (West of Ishi, also surrounded by Hoshi (Stars), Wind and Earth Country)**

 **Moya: Haze (Southwest of Water Country in Mountain Country right near Kagero (Heat Haze)(affiliate to Kiri))**

 **Tani: Valley (In Rivers Country between Fire and Wind Country (affiliate to Konoha))**

 **I'm pretty much going for an overpopulated Chunin Exams so just bear with me.**


	4. Better Days, The Exams, The Darkness

**Chapter 4**

Here we find Squads 7-10 all together at Training Ground 1.

"Well we should get down to business," Asuma began "All of you have been nominated for the Chunin Exams. We only have a month to prep you all and I can guarantee when we're through with you guys you'll be cursing us and ready for the exam." He finished with a smirk

"First things first however, we need you all to sign these forms and we'll turn them in at the end of the day." Kurenai said

After handing out the forms and a few maternal threats to Shikamaru who asked about quitting the jonin collected the papers.

"Now let us begin the springtime of our youth as a team! We shall begin our exercises with ten laps around the village to get our blood boiling." Guy said with enthusiasm

Ten laps later and multiple complaints from Ino as well as a dog tired Team Kurenai, Kakashi began to take over.

"Alright we're going to be doing team sparring from here on out and exposing all strengths and weaknesses and building on them. You all may not be on the same team but you're still comrades at the end of the day."

"First spar will be Squad 9 vs Squad 10" Asuma announced

Not only was everybody surprised at how quickly the fight ended but they were surprised that Asuma had a smile on his face at his team getting utterly destroyed.

"This is what you guys will run into at the Chunin Exams. Choji, you were far too kind and questioned yourself too much in this fight and that's how Lee was able to dispose of you quickly. Ino, you played right into Tenten's hands attacking her with long-range attacks, if you wish to do that you need to work on it and you can't be afraid to get your hands dirty and use taijutsu. Shikamaru although you were able to restrain Neji before he got to you, you didn't even try to attack him afterwards which left you wide open. After Lee and Tenten attacked you they had you outnumbered with a freed Neji." Asuma broke down his team's failure "You all need to work on your communication and picking up for each other.

After a few mumbles and grumbles they all acknowledged what was said and fell back into line along with Squad 9.

"No hard feelings comrades?" Lee asked with his nice guy pose.

"…No none at all, sensei was right, we need to work on quite a few things." Shikamaru said

"Expect more of a challenge the next time we fight" Ino declared

"Oh, we'll be waiting alright" Tenten said sharpening one of her kunai

Back on the battlefield Kakashi stood next to Kurenai.

"The second spar will be between Squads 7 and 8"

This spar was far more destructive and had to be called to a stop in Squad 7's favor before somebody seriously got hurt.

"Hmm, you guys did pretty well. Although I'm sure you all felt that something was off during your fight." Kakashi said

"Yes, even though we capitalized on outnumbering them the fight was far too chaotic and we were unable to close it." Sai said in an analytical tone

"That's correct; although Naruto can use his clones and give us a number's advantage it won't do us much help if we can't fight alongside the clones. You two ended up killing eight of his clones before you were able to really get to your opponents." Kakashi said

Sayuri didn't say much as she knew the original was fighting Kiba and attacked Hinata without a care for the erratic clones. Sai's jutsu were able to catch Shino off guard however he took out three of Naruto's clones in the process.

"Kiba, you of all people should know not to rush into battle simply because your opponent isn't looking at you. If this were to have been a real fight you would have put Hinata and Shino in a real bad spot. Hinata, you started off your fight well but you never went on the offensive, I know that with some more work you'll hone your clan's jutsu and be able to counterattack as well as you defend. Shino I commend you for leaving yourself open to protect your teammates however I believe you should work on your taijutsu if you do that more often, your movements were far too slow when combatting with Sai." Kurenai finished

"Naruto, you started off in the right direction. You outnumbered your opponents and was going to incapacitate one until you just start going off and doing a few things I've never seen before. Do you mind explaining what your reasoning was?" Kakashi asked

"…"

"Naruto?"

"It's nothing; I'll get them next time. There won't be a problem" Naruto answered

"What do you mean it's nothing? Some of your clones almost took both Sai and I out. I feel you we deserve an explanation" Sayuri stated

"Well get it from my clones if you want one so bad." Naruto quickly dismissed in an emotionless tone

That caught everyone off guard as Naruto never talked to anyone like that, especially someone he deemed a loved one.

After getting over the quick stun, Sayuri practically demanded that he answer why'd he get so upset during a spar.

"I don't know who you think you are but you're going to answer me Uzum-"

"What, are you going to force me to answer you? It'd be wise if you remember we're on two different plateaus Sayuri…" Naruto said with a slightly threatening tone

"That's enough. The both of you we're going to improve on a few things starting now. Sai you stay here while I watch over these two, I apologize everyone." Kakashi said before escorting Naruto and Sayuri away

Over at Training Ground 10 both Naruto and Sayuri were drenched in sweat with Kakashi standing up looking down at the both of them.

"Now Naruto, do you mind explaining to us what that was back there?" Kakashi asked in a much calmer voice

"Like I said, it's nothing to worry about. The next time we face Squad 8, I'll handle them." Naruto answered

"That wasn't my question Naruto, why di-"

"Why did you go postal all of a sudden? You never fight like that, you're always promoting being cool calm and collective during fights and then go off and do that. That's pretty hypocritical Uzumaki." Sayuri interrupted

Exhaling out loud before continuing Kakashi finished "Although I'm curious as to what I missed, Sayuri has a point the fight really started getting erratic out there and your clones were even doing some wild things Naruto."

Naruto stood back up off the ground and began to dust himself off before asking if they were done.

"…yes, Sayuri you can head back to the others. Naruto, you're going to spar with me starting right here and now." Kakashi said exposing his sharingan

Sayuri was beside herself, "wait a minute so he's getting special attention while the others have to share three senseis?" Sayuri asked with anger in her tone

Kakashi didn't even turn to face her before stating "Trust me; this is a type of training you don't want to be involved in. It's reserved especially for elder and younger brothers, now go." Kakashi said

After staring at them for a few more seconds Sayuri left and informed Asuma and the other senseis what Kakashi told her and after a few more spars called it a day.

Meanwhile at Training Ground 10 Kakashi was staring Naruto down before he moved at an undetectable pace and knocked the air out of Naruto with a left to his stomach.

"Still not going to tell me what happened?" Kakashi asked, only to receive a snarl from Naruto before evading his strike

Kakashi and Naruto began to exchange blows with Naruto taking the brunt of them including an elbow to the face that sent him flying into a tree.

Now Naruto was pissed, he just wanted to go home but here Kakashi is fighting him trying to get answers from him.

"All you have to do is tell me what happened and all this stops, I promise. You know you can't beat me like this." Kakashi said still in a battle ready stance

Naruto began to draw on Kurama's chakra to end the fight until Kakashi delivered another swift kick to his side sending him through multiple trees.

Naruto stood up from the clearing with one tail from the Nine-Tails cloak around him with a face that promised Kakashi pain.

"Hmm, you've gotten so angry to think that you'd use this on me. You truly must've forgotten who I am Naruto." Kakashi said before his sharingan started to rotate and transform into the mangekyo. "Go to sleep, we'll talk about this as soon as you wake up" He said before using a genjutsu on him.

Naruto woke up later to find himself in Kakashi's house tied up with Kakashi's summons Bull watching him. As soon as he made eye contact with the dog it barked at him alerting Kakashi he was awake.

"Good to see you're finally up, it seemed as if you were having a nightmare you know. Want to talk about it?" Kakashi asked

"Let me go home Kakashi…" Naruto said noticing Kakashi took precautions and placed a seal on him that lowered his chakra level

"Afraid I can't do that, if I let you go home without explaining things to me I'll have to rescind your team's right to participate in the Chunin Exams. You wouldn't want that would you?" Kakashi asked in a teasing nature before getting serious "Naruto, I'm worried about you, you've never behaved like this. I want to be there to help you but you have to inform me on what's going on." Kakashi declared

"…bugs" Naruto whispered

"Speak up Naruto."

"He used bugs…"

"Well of course he used bugs Naruto, he's an Aburame. It's associated with their clan jutsu."

"It's been seven years Kakashi…why can't I get over it?" he asked with trembling hands

' _Get over it?'_ Kakashi though before remembering _'How could I have forgotten? He was attacked by an Aburame all of those years ago! It explains why he started fighting so bizarre, he was having flashbacks.'_ Kakashi spoke up

"So that's what happened huh? I guess I can't fault you for that…you aren't the only one to suffer from a posttraumatic stress disorder." Kakashi said before cutting him loose from the bindings.

Naruto still wasn't standing up but now had his full attention on Kakashi.

"You know, I think the only reason a certain teammate of yours goes off on you like that is because she cares for you more than you think." Kakashi said teasingly

"I told Sayuri I'll always have her bac-"

"I know that much Naruto, perhaps it isn't my place but maybe you should let her in on your backstory. I know you'd hate to lose a friend like that because of some heat of the moment argument."

"You're right," Naruto said now standing up "I'll let her know everything, and after the Chunin Exams I may have more than her back" Naruto finished with a wink

Kakashi began to chuckle before speaking "I see you've read some of Jiraiya's literature, well don't let Fugaku or Itachi hear you say that out loud."

Kakashi and Naruto shared a laugh before Naruto made a declaration.

"I'm going to get over this, besides could you imagine all the flak I'd catch if I was a Hokage with a phobia to insects?" Naruto asked

Early next morning Sayuri was exiting her house with Itachi who always walked her out the door. Upon walking outside Itachi noticed Naruto sitting in a tree as if waiting for Sayuri.

"Well, have a good day Sayuri remember to be home before dusk" Itachi said

"I know Itachi, you only do that when people are around I swear…" Sayuri whispered at the end "What do you want Uzumaki?" Sayuri spat

Naruto walked up to her and bowed his head and began to apologize for his actions.

"What are you apologizing to me for? You're plateaus above me remember?" Sayuri kept it up

' _I guess I deserved that one'_ "My skill levels do not matter if my behaviors towards my loved ones aren't up to par" Naruto said

"Hmm, you're telling me…" Sayuri trailed off before sending a quick left to Naruto's gut

"Hmmph! What… what was that for?" Naruto asked out of breath

"Hn, I though you sent a clone to apologize. Just making sure you were really you." Sayuri said which was a half truth

' _Her emotions didn't even change, she's getting good at this'_ Naruto thought "I guess I deserved that"

"Oh you're damn right you did, you're lucky I don't haul off on you again for kissing that girl in Wave" Sayuri thought immediately regretting what she said

Naruto began to chuckle before catching Sayuri off guard with his next words

"Sayuri, I'll always have your back y'know. I need to explain to you why I behaved the way I did the other day. I'd rather you not interrupt me so I can get it all off my chest in one go…if that's fine with you."

Sayuri merely stared at Naruto which he took as the message to start. Right before he began the first word he took a right to his gut from Sayuri.

"What was that one for?" Naruto asked hunched over

"You skipped dinner and a beat down yesterday, I just remembered." Sayuri answered

' _You crazy bit- calm thoughts Naruto, calm thoughts.'_ Naruto said to himself

After regaining himself Naruto began to tell Sayuri everything about what happened to him including the attempt on his life as well as his upbringing and his ability to sense emotions.

Needless to say Sayuri was apologizing to him for berating him, hitting him and the other ideas that were going through her head when she first saw him.

Telling her it was alright they made their wait out to the Training Grounds until he grabbed her and teleported to a nearby concealed area.

"What are you do-"

Naruto interrupted Sayuri with a kiss on the lips.

"I couldn't help myself any longer, and in all honesty I can't wait to do that more often after the Chunin Exams" Naruto said with a wide grin

Naruto placed his hand back on Sayuri's shoulder to teleport back near the Training Grounds until Sayuri jumped on him and began to kiss him much deeper than he initiated. Naruto had no idea how she managed to open his mouth with her own but he wasn't going to stop to question her.

As soon as Sayuri came down from cloud nine she noticed the position they were in with Naruto standing and her with her legs wrapped around his waist she blushed and slowly got down.

The rest of the month went by without a hitch, Naruto and Sayuri's chemistry was undeniably the best out of the entire group. Naruto was also restless since after he was done with team training he began learning medical ninjutsu from Tsunade. Tsunade's true intention was to make sure Naruto was up to par to use the _**Creation Rebirth Technique**_. Although he was only able to get the basic _**Mystical Palm Technique**_ down due to how time-consuming his initial training was. Naruto also invited all of his comrades to surprise Tsunade on her birthday.

Tsunade was arriving home late at night with one thought on her mind.

' _With Shizune being out with Genma I can finally break out the secret Myobokuzan sake that Naruto was able to sneak for my birthday. That boy…'_ Tsunade thought before opening the door to nearly receive a heart attack at the 15+ people in her house at the dead of night.

"Surprise Lady Tsunade!/Happy birthday Grandma/Princess!" The party yelled

Tsunade was caught off guard but when she saw Naruto's smiling face between her teacher and old teammate she cried tears of joy and crushed all three of them into a hug

Later on in the party Tsunade began to open up the gifts she received from the rookie 12 and her old team as well as one from Genma and Shizune until Naruto stood on top of her table clinging his glass with a spoon.

"If I may have your attention please, I would like to thank all of you for attending Grandma Tsunade's birthday party even though she refuses to tell any of us how old she is-"

"52!" Jiraiya yelled before getting creamed by said 52-year old

"Thanks Jiraiya Sensei, well I'd like to give you gift grandma" Naruto finished

"Naruto you already got me a gift, although I currently can't get to it" she finished in a whisper

Naruto pulled out a rather large envelope and handed it to a confused Tsunade who opened up the envelope and nearly passed out

Hiruzen who had been over Tsunade's shoulder however almost had his eyes bulge out of his head.

Jiraiya who just removed himself from the wall began to speak walking back towards Tsunade and the others. "What's all the hubbub about Princess?" he asked before his eyes landed on the gift

"Naruto, I couldn't take this, I could never take this from you. Take it back and use it for yourse-"

"I'm afraid I can't do that, I've been saving it for you the moment I found out you were my grandmother. Plus how would it look if the Fifth Hokage had outstanding debts to play while in office?" Naruto finished

Genma finally said what everyone was thinking "What is it Master Jiraiya?"

"The brat just gave Tsunade 11 Million ryo." Jiraiya said

Shizune hurriedly ran to her mentor's side and upon seeing all the notes in the envelope passed out. The rest of the night went on with Tsunade constantly trying to give Naruto most of his money back only to be declined as well as Sayuri trying to get alone time with Naruto.

The day before the Chunin Exams started Team Kakashi encountered a team from the Hidden Sand. Nobody was paying attention to them besides Naruto because his tenant was practically screaming at him.

' _ **Shukaku!'**_

' _What, you mean the youngest out of your kin? That Shukaku?'_

' _ **How many Shukaku do you know boy? That's not all though, Matatabi, Kokuo, Saiken even Chomei. They are all here'**_ Kurama informed Naruto

' _What the hell? You mean to tell me six out of the nine of you guys are all in the same village? That has bad news written all over it.'_

' _ **This is quite interesting; although Shukaku won't be willing to speak with me I'm sure the others will.'**_ Kurama said

' _Guess I'll just have to come across them huh?'_

' _ **Yes. But make sure you stay away from Shukaku's container for now, I'm pretty sure the child is eccentric, Shukaku doesn't allow his containers to sleep."**_ Kurama said

"Hey Sayuri have you seen Sai?" Naruto asked to get out of their current spot

"No I haven-"

"Let's go look for him, last minute planning y'know." Naruto interrupted before leaving with Sayuri in tow

Meanwhile in the underground ROOT headquarters Danzo was giving Sai his orders for the Chunin Exams.

"You are to protect your teammates for the second portion of the exams and when the tournament starts I want you to make sure if you fight somebody from another village they are to win. Am I clear?"

"Yes Lord Danzo."

"You are dismissed; remember Orochimaru is after one of your teammates, I'm not sure who but make sure he doesn't get to either one of them"

"Yes Lord Danzo" Sai finished before teleporting away

The next day we find all of the teams participating in the Chunin Exams at the largest training ground within village with Anko, Hayate, Yamato and Yugao in front of them. Due to there being too many teams the Hokage enforced a last minute change in where only a certain amount of teams would be able to participate.

' _Lord Hokage was right, there's got to be at least 70 teams here…sheesh'_ Yamato thought before commanding their attention

"Okay the first part of the Chunin Exams will take place here and end across the village, you all are not to travel within the village if you do you'll automatically be disqualified, you may use anything outside the village as help. And all of your teammates must also make it to the closing point together " Yamato signaled his _**Wood Clones**_ to come out and they all yelled out "you mall may begin now _**Wood Style: Deep Forest Emergence"**_

One minute Naruto was excited knowing the name of the game was a race until his vision was covered by clusters of trees; hell these clones made a forest all on their own

"You all only have ten minutes, don't keep us waiting kiddies" Anko called out before the four proctors teleported away

'Ten minute, along with this forest…challenge accepted.' Naruto thought before speaking "Sayuri, Sai grab on to me and hold on tight." Naruto called out to them

As soon as they got a grip on Naruto they were all at the edge of the forest created by Yamato. Sai took out his calligraphy set and used _**Ninja Art: Super Beast Scroll: Ink Hawk**_

Squad 7 all jumped on top of the hawk made of ink and headed towards the finish mark but not before Sayuri let the rest of the teams with a surprise.

Flashing through hand signs Sayuri finished with a tiger sign before using the _**Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu**_ on the exit of the forest so the other teams would have to use detours that'd take even longer.

Team Kakashi was the first team to reach the finish point at time of 07:14. Later on other teams began to cross the finish line and it was still pretty crowded but the proctors achieved their goals of lessening the number of teams to 50 or below. Taking a final count Yamato confirmed there was now 44 teams and gave Yugao the floor.

"Alright listen up the Chunin Exams are now underway. Your first test in the Chunin Exams shall be a hostage situation in an interrogation. Each team will send one member to another team to have them interrogated for a code to retrieve their teammate from the team that's interrogating them. The code can be a single word or a phrase of words up to five seconds. I'm pretty sure you all know you won't pass if you kill your hostage. You all have 30 minutes to receive the code."

After all the teams were through deciding who they'd send as the hostage they began to do prisoner exchanges with the other teams.

"Are you sure that you want to go as the prisoner? I can do it to you know?" Sayuri asked

"We all know that if anyone on this team can take a beating it's me, don't worry…" Naruto said before leaning into her and whispering "if you retrieve the code in under a certain time limit I'll have a surprise especially for you." Naruto sang

Squad 7 ended up sending Naruto. Squad 8 sent Kiba. Squad 9 sent Lee, who was actually enthused to be a prisoner. Squad 10 sent Choji. The Suna team sent Kankuro. The Kumo team sent Omoi. The Iwa team sent Akatsuchi. The Kiri team sent Kagetsu Hozuki.

As soon as all the doors closed to the interrogation rooms the first exam began.

 **With Naruto and Hidden Frost team:**

"Tell us the code and this'll be all over" The frost ninja said after socking Naruto in the jaw.

Naruto looked up with a smile and whispered something that went unheard.

"What was that?" he asked

"I said the code was…your mother has big meaty claws" Naruto finished with cackling

The ninja began to beat on Naruto for the next two minutes before asking for the code again. After receiving the same answer the ninja took out a kunai laced with poison and began "this kunai is laced with some of the nastiest poison from the Hidden Cloud Village, now I'll give you one more chance, what's the code?" he repeated

"Nastiest poison in the Cloud huh, no disrespect but you do know the Hidden Leaf is the most dominant village right?" Naruto asked only to get the kunai lodged into his shoulder

'Hn, damn I actually felt that. Wait…what the' Naruto thought with the poison really setting in on him. 'Kurama, what's going on?'

'…'

'Kurama? No, Kurama what's going on?' Naruto repeated only to get no answer

Kurama was all in all still in a foul mood from the Wave mission that Naruto would potentially sacrifice his life along with Kurama's to save someone who was from a clan that once enslaved him. Yeah the Wave mission was a while ago but Kurama is an everlasting being so he had quite a bit of time to stew in it.

The room began to spin and everything Naruto looked at had multiple afterimages. Basically he was in some real trouble if he didn't get it together in the next couple of minutes or so.

 **With Sayuri, Sai & Hiddden Frost Ninja**

"How do you think we should handle this Sai?" Sayuri questioned

Sai looked on with an impassive face before grabbing his tanto and using the hilt to break the ninja's arm that was tied to his side.

Sayuri slightly winced at the snap of the bone, not expecting that to be Sai's first move. 'Well then, I see we're going directly with that route' Sayuri thought before activating her sharingan

"Sai I think I can handle this one quickly. I haven't got much better at using this since I did in Wave but I believe it'll work on a genin." Sayuri said

The boy who was breathing hard and cursing under his breath looked up and the last thing he saw before passing out was three tomoe in a red eye when he heard _**"Genjutsu: Sharingan!"**_

"…well?" Sai asked

Sayuri placed her hand on top of her eyes before slightly bending over, _'damn it, how did I make that look so easy last time?'_ Sayuri thought before replying.

"The code is 'A code day in Hell'" Sayuri replied before Sai opened the door and went to free Naruto before being followed by Sayuri.

Once they got to the room Sayuri and Sai noticed that not only was there not an interrogation going on at the moment but Naruto's breathing was pretty faint and he was on the ground yet still tied to the chair.

While the Hidden Frost ninja were upset with their comrade giving away the code they didn't even notice Sayuri until the last minute who knocked both of them unconscious with two kicks.

Sai approached Naruto and yanked the kunai out of his shoulder before picking up an odor of poison on it.

"Sayuri check them and see if they have an antidote, Naruto has been poisoned." Sai said

Frantically searching through their belongings she tossed a vile of yellow liquid to Sai who had Naruto drink a fourth of it to make sure it wasn't another poison. With a perceptive gaze Sai noticed a tad of improvement in Naruto's breathing before having him consume the rest.

Once he began to feel better Sayuri and Sai helped him up and began to make their way to the meeting point.

' _Thank goodness you're alright'_ Sayuri thought before she wondered how strong of a poison he was hit with for the Nine-Tails not being able to heal him.

 **With Shino, Hinata & Hidden Grass Ninja**

"Hinata, can you seal off all the chakra points in his arms and legs?" Shino asked

Nodding in reply Hinata activated her byakugan and used her Gentle Fist Technique to seal off the majority of chakra points in the ninja's arms and legs.

"Thank you, now you can leave the rest to me." Shino informed her before taking his hand out of his coat pocket only for hundreds of insects to cover the ninja's body and drain his chakra while burning him as well.

It took around ten minutes for the ninja to break who gave a code of "Dull blades are still useful" before Hinata retrieved Kiba from his interrogation room.

 **With Neji, Tenten and Hidden Mist Ninja**

"We aren't getting anywhere with this Neji, this guy would rather die before giving us the code" Tenten said while Neji was unblocking the ninja's chakra paths for a third time to put him through even more pain.

The Mist ninja had been through barrage upon barrage of Gentle Fist strikes as well as Tenten going far enough to beat him with both blunt and sharp weapons. She even tied a sharp string of wire around him which began to cut through his clothing and skin only for the ninja to scream but still not give up his team's code.

Neji was ready to begin another assault until the door to their room opened up.

'No, what happened to Lee?' Tenten wondered

'You've got to be kidding me' Neji thought

The door opened to show what even the two sane members on Team Guy found bizarre. It was Lee, his upper body still tied up to his chair and pretty bruised up but giving his trademark smile.

"Lee? What are you doing here Lee?" Tenten asked confused beyond reason

"You would not believe what I have discovered, not only can you defend yourself as a hostage but you can also guess the code placed onto your door from the inside." Lee informed his teammates who were convinced Lee would find some way to give them a stroke before it was all said and done.

"You guessed the code we were trying to receive?" Neji asked

"Wait, how did you defend yourself, you were tied up and can't even mold chakra" Tenten asked

Lee nodded furiously with a smile to Neji before explaining what happened to Tenten.

 **Flashback – With Lee & Hidden Mist Ninjas**

"Still not going to talk huh kid" the ninja asked before slugging Lee across the face again.

"…" Lee didn't respond

"Wait. I know what'll break him" the kunoichi said before her partner started another attack

The kunoichi swayed her hips while walking toward Lee in a slow, seductive way. She sat down on Lee's lap and whispered in his ear that she'd reward him if he gave her the code.

Lee, being in that situation quickly jumped up from his chair tearing the bindings placed on his legs from the chair which caused the kunoichi to fall. The ninja who was caught off guard by Lee's quick movements rushed him only to receive a jumping roundhouse kick to the jaw.

The kunoichi took out a kunai to attack Lee but was countered by Lee using the chair as a shield, a rather dangerous one if you can say so yourself. The kunai cut one of the legs off the chair which Lee ended up kicking at the kunoichi who was hit in the side of the head before passing out.

Now Lee was really in a situation, although he was no longer being interrogated he noticed it was taking Neji and Tenten some time to get to him and decided to try something out. Yelling out phrase after phrase Lee was finding no luck in opening the door from the inside. Lee began with yelling complex phrases before deciding to yell simple things and got lucky as his first try opened the door.

"…Open Sesame!" Lee yelled to the top of his lungs and watched the door open. Smiling to himself Lee began the process of running like a chicken with its head cut off to find his team's room which took him around 5 minutes.

 **End of Flashback –**

Neji's eye was twitching dangerously, almost as if he were the Second Hokage _. 'You mean to tell me that Lee basically finished this entire test all by himself'_ Neji thought

Exhaling out loud Tenten walked up to Lee with a kunai and told Lee to hold still so she could free him.

"That will not be necessary flower of sunshine!" Lee yelled to Tenten's displeasure before flexing his muscles and bringing his arms up, breaking the bindings from his upper body and dropping the chair that was tied to him.

"Wait a minute…If you could do that the entire time why give your interrogators a chance to even harm you?" Tenten asked

"I believed it was against the rules however I was not stopped from defending myself or using their code against them" Lee replied

' _If Guy doesn't do it first Lee's definitely going to give me a stroke pretty soon'_ Neji and Tenten thought before exiting their room to meet at the next meeting point.

 **With Shikamaru, Ino & Hidden Rock (Iwa) Ninja**

"Well this ought to be pretty easy, Ino if you would…" Shikamaru said while lying down on the floor

"Get up you lazy ass! At least take care of my body when I use the jutsu!" Ino yelled at her teammate who groaned before standing up and holding her shoulders while she put up her family's trademark hand sign and yelling _**Ninja Art: Mind Transfer Jutsu.**_

Ino was inside the Rock ninja's head for around three minutes before going back into her own body.

Feeling she was back Shikamaru let her go and watched Ino walk up to the semi unconscious ninja before slapping him as hard as she could.

Wide-eyed Shikamaru asked her what happened. Ino huffed before explaining

"That jerk said the code was 'Bitchy, Lazy and Fatty'" Ino said before stomping off to go find Choji

Shikamaru rubbed the back of his head before yawning and saying "Well let's go get Choji, I'm pretty sure he'll be getting hungry soon"

Ino whose voice boomed in the hallway replied by saying "Let's go Nara!"

' _Now you're just proving a point Ino…'_ Shikamaru kept to himself before walking after her "This is all such a drag" he finished

 **With Gaara, Temari & Hidden Keys Ninja**

The Hidden Sand team not only got there interrogation done first but set a record of right under one minute with Gaara utterly breaking the ninja mentally and physically before Temari retrieved their brother Kankuro.

 **With Samui, Karui & Hidden Sound Ninja**

Samui and Karui used their respected blades that were flowing lightning chakra through them before breaking the ninja so Karui could retrieve Omoi before he could, as she said, run his big fat mouth.

 **With Kurotsuchi, Haitsuchi & Hidden Sand Ninja**

Kurotsuchi told Haitsuchi to use his chakra control to hang upside down from the roof before spewing out lava to her hostage's feet. She threatened to raise the lava every 30 seconds he didn't give them an answer. By the time he broke the lava was at nearing his shins before the ninja was freed by Haitsuchi while Kurotsuchi freed Akatsuchi.

 **With Chojuro, Haku & Hidden Stone (Ishi) Ninja**

Haku informed Chojuro she would take care of the interrogation via her kekkai genkai and poison senbons. The entire interrogation lasted right under ten minutes as Chojuro and Haku freed Kagetsu from the Stone ninjas who seemed to be more hurt than he was. Kagetsu ended up fighting the Stone ninja as Lee did but didn't break free from his chair viewing it as evening the odds.

It had been 30 minutes since the start of the first exam and out of the 46 teams that participated 22 teams were left.

Anko stepped forward and began to yell at the genin getting their attention.

"Now's your favorite part of the exam brats! You get to go and play in my own personal playground!" Anko yelled while Yamato sweatdropped behind her.

'Leave it to Anko' Yamato thought before she began to lead the teams to the 44th Training Ground, also known as the Forest of Death.

Anko began to explain the rules and circumstances of the second exams to the genin before flinging a kunai in the direction of Omoi who appeared to be worried about other things at the moment. After Anko retrieved her kunai from a Hidden Grass ninja who walked with an odd stride she handed directed the teams to their respective gates.

On their way to gate 12 Team Kakashi passed by two teams, first a team from the Hidden Rain then a team from the Hidden Grass. As soon as they came into eye contact with the team from the Hidden Rain Naruto's walking path was impeded by the lone kunoichi on the team who also appeared to be their leader.

' _Well well well, what do we have here? Didn't know the Leaf produced such cuties. You never see hair or eyes like that back home…_ ' the Rain kunoichi named Hitsuke thought before speaking up

"I look forward to seeing you in the forest handsome; maybe after you give up your talisman to me I can make sure you get out of the forest safe and sound. Who knows, maybe I'll take you back to the Rain sooner than later." Hitsuke said before walking off

Before the Chunin Exams began Naruto told Sayuri he didn't want her to give away that they were a couple, fearing Hidden Rock ninja or others would use her to get to him. Although she didn't say anything to the Rain kunoichi Naruto could feel the envy and rage rolling off of her in waves. Putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder Squad 7 began to make their way to their gate before quickly encountering the same Grass ninja who gave Anko her kunai. As soon as the ninja walked past them Naruto felt a chill go down his spine as well as goosebumps spread across his body. Turning around, he noticed the ninja was already gone. Shaking it off, they continued their trek once again.

Finally at gate 12, Team Kakashi received the go ahead from Anko over the speakers that the second phase of the exam had begun. Naruto who had the initial talisman in his possession gave it to Sai and gave the order of going to the river inside of the forest in hoping they could set up and ambush a team and get to the Central Tower as soon as possible.

On their way to the river they encountered a team from the Hidden Haze who they quickly defeated only to find out they had the same talisman as them. Arriving at the river they noticed another team had the same plan as them. Unfortunately to Sayuri it was Hitsuke's team.

Upon laying her eyes in Naruto, Hitsuke let a smile creep on her face before speaking. "This has got to be more than a coincidence. I hope you also have the Talisman of Heaven." She said as she saw their subtle reaction she began to get giddy "You shouldn't have, well you should have and you did so let's finish this up so I can make sure you get out safely Hun." Hitsuke finished

As soon as Naruto and Sai got into a defensive stance expecting a fight Sayuri put her hand in front of them.

"She's mine, you two handle the others" Sayuri said with that feeling of jealousy that was even evident on her face.

"I'm not interested in you girly; I sure as hell don't swing that way. I want my sun-kissed darling there behind you." Hitsuke said pulling out her chain and sickle

"You talk about him quite a bit to not even know his name…" Sayuri said

"I guess I'll just find out after I get done with you." Hitsuke said before taking off towards Sayuri

Sayuri unsheathed her chokuto and began a battle of weapons with Hitsuke while the other Rain ninja fought against Naruto and Sai.

'Man this is so trying, they're trying to keep the fight going on long enough in hoping that girl will beat Sayuri' Naruto thought before getting Sai's attention.

"Sai! Let's go with combo four!" Naruto yelled

"Right" Sai replied pulling out a scroll and going through hand signs before a large amount of small birds made of ink covered both of the fights.

 _ **Fire Style: Flame Bombs"**_ Naruto called out loud; meanwhile Sai silently used the _**Hidden Mole Jutsu**_ and traveled underground.

One of the Rain ninja was caught in the flames and had severe burns on his arm.

"Kuzo!" the unharmed Rain ninja called out before using his own jutsu _**"Water Style: Wild Water Wave!"**_ he called shooting a stream of water in Naruto's area before feeling a pair of hands grab onto him from underground. Naruto dodged the water and quickly knocked the ninja out with a chop to the neck.

Naruto turned toward the ninja known as Kuzo and asked where their talisman was.

Kuzo quickly replied by saying "Lady Hitsuke has it I swear, she was determined to fight you and retrieve your's." he said

Before Sai could go knock out Kuzo Naruto stopped him and told him they needed to go help Sayuri.

Running off in the direction where Sayuri and Hitsuke were going Naruto felt someone directing bloodlust towards him and Sai, the main problem was it was coming from everywhere.

' _Damn it, are we surrounded? No way, a whole group can't move that fast and get the drop on us like that.'_ Naruto thought before feeling a jutsu headed toward him and Sai

Naruto flashed through hand signs before slapping his hands on the ground in front of him yelling _**"Earth Style: Mud Wall"**_

The mud wall stood for around five seconds before the high speed winds began to break it down. Naruto was wondering how many people were surrounding him and Sai until feeling another strong jutsu headed their way.

' _Damn it this is really getting annoying now.'_ Naruto thought to himself

 **With Sayuri & Hitsuke**

" _ **Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu"**_ Sayuri called out before spewing six balls of fire at Hitsuke, who used her _**Water Style:Water Bomb**_ to retaliate.

"You're really starting to get on my nerves girly, what's with you?" Hitsuke asked before catching on to the look of Sayuri's face. "Oh don't tell me, he's with you? He could do much better you know? Well since you know him so well let me ask you a question. Do you think his kids will have his hair and eyes, I'd just fall in love with my babies if they looked like him" Hitsuke said, succeeding in getting Sayuri mad.

They kept exchanging blows with their respected weapons until Hitsuke jumped away from Sayuri instead of returning a blade swing. "Do you recognize where you are? Let's see if my baby thinks anything of you when you're unrecognizable" Hitsuke said before the ground below Sayuri became papery and Hitsuke used _**Fire Style: Exploding Flame Formation**_ on Sayuri.

As soon as the paper bombs began to wrap around Sayuri's legs she used the _**Water Style: Water Prison Jutsu**_ on herself which negated the paper bombs attached to her _. 'For once Kakashi's teaching comes in handy'_ Sayuri thought before releasing the prison and paper bombs from her legs.

Hitsuke was now really getting upset, that technique never failed, hell her grandfather taught it to her himself. She began to grow through some well-known hand signs and called out _**Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu**_

' _Oh you bitch, want to play dirty? Two can play that game'_ Sayuri thought highly upset that someone from outside her village casually used her clan's jutsu.

" _ **Fire Style: Majestic Demolisher Flame"**_ Sayuri said before expelling a massive stream of intense flames from her mouth headed directly for Hitsuke.

Upon the flames dying down Sayuri noticed Hitsuke was nowhere to be found. 'Guess I overdid it. That'll teach the bitch to talk about my Naruto around me.' Sayuri thought before looking for said ninja as well as Sai.

 **Back w/ Naruto & Sai vs Grass Ninja**

"Sai I think we're surrounded by clones." Naruto informed his teammate

"Are we to clear out the original?" Sai asked

"Do you think you have enough ink?" Naruto asked

Sai looked at Naruto with his false smile signaling he had enough left over.

Naruto gave the order and Sai began to allow large amounts of ink to spew from a scroll he was holding while Naruto used his _**Fire Style: Flame Bombs**_ again, incinerating the area around them.

Naruto and Sai began to look for the original amongst all the damage and weren't having any luck finding the ninja.

Sayuri, who saw the explosion, arrived to the area through a few outer trees and spotted her teammates in a defensive stance. Before she could join them she saw a ninja materializing from the ground right on the side of Naruto who was unaware.

"Naruto!" Sayuri yelled to get his attention

Naruto and Sai looked in Sayuri's direction before Sai looked at Naruto and froze. There was a ninja right near Naruto with a sadistic smile on his face. Naruto first looked at Sayuri then saw Sai's expression and turned to face what he saw to be a Grass ninja.

Before Naruto could even move the Grass ninja grabbed his face and flung him back into the trees behind him that were also on fire. The Grass ninja also kicked Sai in the side which sent him in another direction before throwing paper bomb laced kunais in different directions causing multiple explosions to obscure his trail.

Naruto's jacket and shirt both caught fire due to the flames and Naruto quickly cut it open with a kunai before ditching his tops. Standing there shirtless Naruto noticed he was in a much different are then he was in before.

' _Crap, it's a genjutsu'_ he thought before expelling it only to see the same Grass ninja in front of him again. The Grass ninja delivered two swift kicks to Naruto's gut before throwing him away again in a different direction.

Naruto used his chakra to catch onto a tree he passed while flying through the air. _'Alright, come on Naruto that's twice this guy has gotten the drop on me'_ he thought before hearing Kurama speak up.

' _ **Listen carefully boy, this ninja's chakra is really memorable, it feels just like your grandmother's teammate'**_ Kurama informed him before continuing _**'Although he looks nothing like him I'm pretty sure he has something to do with him'**_ Kurama finished

Meanwhile Sai and Sayuri were collecting themselves before they were surrounded by two different teams from the Hidden Rain.

"Lady Hitsuke has sent us to deal with you two especially while she goes after your teammate, don't make this any harder than it has to be and just die." One of the rain ninja spoke up

' _Lady Hitsuke…?'_ Sayuri thought _'She's royalty in the Rain village?'_

The six-on-two began and Sayuri and Sai knew they were now in trouble and even worse, whoever separated them from Naruto was probably just as capable as their comrade, maybe better.

Naruto was standing on the tree frozen as soon as the disguised Orochimaru leaked his own killing intent.

' _No way, this is much more than Zabuza's and Kakashi's combined'_ Naruto thought as he saw his own death which was brutal to say the least

The Grass ninja standing opposite of Naruto began to chuckle aloud before speaking. "Just like Kakashi back on his youth, you can't even move if you wanted to huh?" he spoke before tossing a kunai at Naruto

' _Damn it got to move. C'mon move already, just-'_ before Naruto could finish Kurama stepped in

' _ **MOVE BOY! Unless you want to die MOVE!'**_ Kurama's voice boomed.

Naruto was able to move just in time as the kunai barely cut off a lock of his hair.

"Ah, maybe you'll be a better opponent than Kakashi, I really hope so. Otherwise I'd have to go after Princess Sayuri." He informed Naruto

' _What the hell does he want?'_ Naruto thought before steeling himself in preparation to fight Orochimaru.

' _ **If you're going to fight him you'll need my chakra boy. This man rivals both your grandmother and your perverted sensei.'**_ Kurama informed him

' _Right let's go all out with three tails then.'_ Naruto replied hoping it would be enough

Orochimaru seeing the chakra cloak adorn Naruto inwardly smiled. "So it's true you are the Nine-Tails jinchuriki. That also means you're the son of the Fourth Hokage as well as his grandson." Orochimaru said

' _He knows my grandfather? Grandpa Saru doesn't even know who my grandfath-'_

' _ **Naruto! Now is not the time to wonder who helped your grandmother create your father.'**_ Kurama said

"Well it has been a pleasure but I merely came by to confirm my suspicions Naruto." Orochimaru said before forming an odd hand seal.

Orochimaru's arm shot out and wrapped around Naruto although the chakra cloak was practically scorching his arm. He used his other hand to seal off the Nine-Tails chakra with the _**Five Elements Seal**_ before elongating his neck and clamping his fangs down into Naruto's shoulder. Upon removing himself from Naruto the bite marks turned into a large circle with three ripples within it.

Naruto was already passing out as soon as Orochimaru slammed his palm over his gut and the last thing he heard was he should talk to Anko about his new gift. Unaware to Naruto, Orochimaru placed the talisman of Heaven into his pocket.

While unconscious, Naruto heard what sounded like Kurama's voice as well as another voice inside of him spoke to him.

" _ **Our teammates are in trouble Naruto, if we don't hurry up their both going to die. It'll be all our fault, we don't want them to die do we Naruto?"**_ the voice asked him baiting him in using the cursed mark placed on him by Orochimaru _**"We must use the power so we can save our comrades Naruto, use the power…"**_ the voices which were beginning to merge trailed off.

Upon waking up from using said power Naruto felt as powerful as he does when using three tails of Kurama's chakra and made his way towards his teammates.

Sayuri and Sai were not faring well against the opposing ninja and were now in even more trouble as Orochimaru sent a team of Sound ninja to test Sayuri's skills. They were now outnumbered nine to two and everything was looking down until a cry of _**Leaf Hurricane**_ was heard and Lee saved Sai and Sayuri.

"Lee…" Sayuri said not even seeing him until he saved them due to his speed

"They're like roaches; leave that one to me…" A heavily bandaged Sound ninja announced. The Sound and Rain ninja were now working together and it was even worse for their opponents.

Lee and Dosu began to exchange blows however Lee began to notice that almost every time he'd dodge a strike that came close to his head he'd begin to feel sick. Not moving as fast as he was in the beginning Lee took a right to the gut before the ninja threw both of his fists to each side of Lee's head, missing his head and going directly over Lee's ears.

' _What the? How'd he miss such an easy shot?'_ Sayuri thought until Lee fell over and began to vomit and have blood come out of his nose before he passed out. _'What the hell was that? He missed Lee by a mile'_ Sayuri thought with her sharingan inactivated due to her fatigue setting in.

In the bushes scoping out the fight was Squad 9 and 10 who were about to intervene until Neji called the ambush off.

"What, you're just going to let Lee get killed? Did you see how he went down? He didn't even get hit." Ino whispered

The whole time Neji had his byakugan activated and informed everyone that something with a large chakra signature reminiscent of a Kage was headed for their direction.

"Who is it Neji?" Tenten asked

Upon noticing Neji's appalled look that didn't suit him everyone began to worry. Neji is easily one of the top genin in the village, so whoever this guy was they really had to watch for him.

"It's…Its Naruto…" Neji said with a tone that showed he was still worried

"Well what's wrong with that as soon as Naruto gets here we can help him and take tho-"

Before Choji could finish Neji shot a nasty glare his way. "If you know what's best for you, you will not leave this spot especially when Naruto gets here!"

"Sheesh Neji, Naruto's strong but this is all pretty troubles-"

"Listen, although that;s Naruto it really isn't him. I don't know how to explain it but his chakra is different, it's flowing different and even seems sinister." Neji explained

The combined Rain and Sound ninja were moving in to finish off Lee and Team Kakashi until they felt a huge rush of killing intent surrounding them.

' _What is that chakra, it's so dark. Almost like it revels in_ killing' Sayuri thought before seeing Naruto looking down at her

Naruto looked at Sai who was barely conscious but aware then Lee who was unconscious and finally landed his gaze upon Sayuri's hurt but still conscious form and heard the voice again. "See Naruto, we were almost late had it not been for this power. We need to protect our teammates and kill these scums. It's kill or be killed Naruto." The voice finished

All of the conscious Leaf ninja were wondering why Naruto's right half was covered in black wave-like motifs and why his chakra felt the way it did. They were all in the trees frozen until what they saw next.

Naruto flashed behind one of the Rain ninja and quickly beheaded him with his own kunai. Everyone was caught off guard at his speed and didn't even notice that Naruto now had one of the Rain kunoichi by the throat on a tree branch. Naruto applied enough pressure to crush her throat before tossing her off the branch and using the _**Falcon Drop**_ on the descending kunoichi killing her on impact. Two of the Rain ninja were enraged at seeing their comrade die before their eyes and went to assault Naruto with a kunai and tanto. After dodging them for around two minutes Naruto began to mock them before he let loose another round of his killing intent which froze the ninja and kunoichi who saw their own deaths before Naruto grabbed their wrists and guided their blades to each other cranium/jugular.

"And then there were two…" Naruto said in a demented sing-song voice

Zaku, who was standing behind the two Rain ninja pushed them forward while also using his _**Supersonic Slicing Wave**_ killing the two Rain ninja and appearing to kill Naruto along with them.

When Naruto was no longer in sight Zaku began to laugh and say he was merely a bluff.

Behind the Sound Team Naruto began to laugh before speaking in his disturbed voice.

"You, I wish to fight you. You used those ninja just as they were meant to be used, as pawns. Show me you'll be a good fight and I promise your death will be swift Sound ninja" Naruto said with an Orochimaru-like smile on his face that Sai noticed.

Zaku was surprised somebody outran his strongest jutsu but yelled "Lightning doesn't strike in the same place twice brat! _**Supersonic Slicing Wave!"**_

The jutsu aimed in Naruto's direction was outrun again and Naruto appeared right behind Zaku before speaking. "Disappointing, so you're just a one-trick pony huh? Well then, allow me to show your teammates a creative way to kill somebody" Naruto finished before kicking Zaku toward a tree

As soon as Zaku's back hit the tree Naruto uppercut him in the air and met him in a higher spot on the tree before connecting Zaku's hands and jamming a kunai through them and into the tree.

Zaku was connected to the tree through a kunai that left him in a high spot on the tree. Nobody noticed until Naruto came back down but the kunai Naruto stuck to Zaku had a wire string on it.

Pulling out multiple kunai he threw them all in Zaku's direction, strategically missing him. Before speaking up again

"Sayuri this is the same trick you taught me, tell me how good I do… Fire Style: Dragon Fla-"

"No stop! It's not worth it! We're alright Naruto!" Sayuri interrupted while hugging Naruto from behind

Naruto turned his head and looked at Sayuri as if she had grown a second head before the black wave-like motifs receded into a seal on his shoulder.

"Sa… Sayuri" Naruto said before passing out.

Teams 9 and 10 slowly came out and asked if Naruto was alright to which Neji responded the chakra Naruto was using was gone however his own chakra was still fluctuating strangely. They all agreed to go to Central Tower together where Neji carried Lee, Shikamaru carried Sai and Choji carried Naruto.

Upon reaching the tower they all deposited their talisman for entry to the tower where Sayuri waited outside for Kakashi to arrive.

Meanwhile inside one of the rooms of the tower Sai sat on top of one bed while Naruto was laying on the other. Naruto stirred and began to get up until he noticed he was on a bed and looked outside to see he was in the tower. Naruto looked around the room and noticed that Sai was the only one present.

'Perfect' Naruto thought before speaking "Sai, I need you to listen to me. That chakra that I was using earlier, I'm pretty sure you can tell I wasn't in full control right?" Naruto asked receiving a nod from Sai "Well, what I'm trying to say is the next time I use that chakra I want you to strike me down where I stand, make sure you kill me however you have to do it." He said shocking Sai

"Why are you asking me?" Sai asked

"Although I consider you somewhat a friend I can tell the feeling isn't exactly mutual. You don't hate me, nor do you like me, you merely view me as a ninja. So it should be much easier for you to kill me, Sayuri and Kakashi would never have the heart to do it so that's why I'm telling you. The next time you feel that chakra that I used before…kill me" Naruto said before they were joined by Sayuri and Kakashi.

Later on in the end of the second phase of the exam, which was five days, there were only ten teams left, although they were shooting for eight or less this was also alright.

Outside of the tower all ten teams were gathered up and Hayate addressed them.

"Due to their being a high number of participants left you all will have to participate and preliminaries of three-man matches before advancing to the finals. If you all would follow me, I'll lead you to the underground stadium where the preliminaries will take place." Hayate finished

Upon everyone arriving in the stadium the rules were gone over and Hayate reestablished that all matches would be randomly drawn three-man matches.

"Now without further ado, would all of the following stay in the arena while everyone else take to the upper level: Gaara Sabaku of the Sand, Rock Lee of the Leaf and Suiiki of the Waterfall…"

 **And that is Chapter 4**

 **I wanted to have the Chunin Exams revolving around Naruto and his team so I apologize if any of you wanted to see other ninja like the foreigners but you'll get a good gander of them during the prelims/finals.**

 **I plan on introducing Fuu during the tournament as well as Kurotsuchi and a few others.**

 **The following teams are the final ten:**

 **Team Kakashi (Naruto, Sai, Sayuri)**

 **Team Kurenai (Shino, Kiba, Hinata)**

 **Team Guy (Neji, Lee, Tenten)**

 **Team Asuma (Shikamaru, Choji, Ino)**

 **Team Suna (Gaara, Kankuro, Temari)**

 **Team Kumo (Samui, Omoi, and Karui)**

 **Team Iwa (Kurotsuchi, Akatsuchi, Haitsuchi)**

 **Team Kiri (Chojuro, Haku, Kagetsu)**

 **Team Ame (Hitsuke, Kuzo, Muki)**

 **Team Waterfall (Fuu, Suiiki, Shinrin)**

 **Chapter 5 will be the Prelims/Finals/Invasion**


	5. The Prelims, The Finals, The Invasion

**Chapter 5**

 **Gaara v. Lee v. Suiiki**

Gaara performed a sand teleportation to the center of the stage while Rock Lee enthusiastically sprinted and Suiiki stayed in the same spot while studying his opponents. The rest of the genin made their way to the up the stairs to the second level while Hayate stayed below.

"You all will protect yourselves at all times. If I deem you unable to fight you will cease your fighting. Obey all of my commands, begin!" Hayate shouted

Lee was the first person to move as he rushed Gaara with a flurry of kicks only to hit the sand surrounding Gaara. Suiiki saw this and decided he should also aim at Gaara thinking he cannot protect himself from two blows at the same time. Unsheathing his sword he jumped in the air and made a downward thrust towards Gaara's head only to be caught by the sand and thrown to the wall.

Growing bored, Gaara decided to counterattack Lee as well with his sand, only to find out that his sand couldn't quite catch him. Shooting tendril after tendril of sand towards Lee he still couldn't grab him and decided to send a wave of sand that wouldn't grab Lee but would hit him.

Lee jumped atop the wave and flipped off onto the giant hands forming the ram hand sign. Lee then looked over at his sensei Guy who did nothing but gave him a smile and a thumb up pose, signaling he could remove his ankle weights. Gaara and Suiiki, who just got back up from being caught off guard by the sand observed Lee as he removed wrap around weights from his ankles with the kanji for determination and perseverance on them. As soon as he dropped the weights they began to fall faster and faster to the ground until they caused two rather large craters upon contact.

"Hmm, I see, so you've been putting him through the same training regimen you went through eh Guy?" Kakashi asked his eternal rival who smiled in response

"Yes, Lee may not be what some call a prodigy or a genius like others Kakashi but there's one thing that separates him from everybody else…hard work." Guy finished with the nice guy pose, much to the Leaf jonins and Zabuza's displeasure.

Zabuza then looked at Kurenai and Asuma before speaking, "Don't tell me all of you leaflets act like these two…"

"Not at all" Kurenai quickly responded

"Kakashi and Guy here are a special case; they couldn't stop if they tried" Asuma assured Zabuza

Kakashi merely said nothing in reply and although he really wanted to pay attention to the fight he couldn't help but wonder about Naruto's strange behavior. Naruto hadn't spoken a word to either him or Sayuri but he was always beside Sai and although he wasn't paying attention to the fight one could tell he was severely concentrating on something.

A few seconds after the weights hit the floor Lee vanished right in front of Gaara and threw a punch at him before vanishing again and throwing another punch at the back of his head that Gaara never saw coming.

Thanks to Gaara's automatic defense he wasn't hit but one could see the surprise on his face as well as a slight panic.

' _No way, no one ever gets to Gaara like this, what the hell is this kid.'_ Kankuro thought

Gaara began to look around for Lee as his eyes couldn't keep up with him and for the first time since he could remember Gaara had been struck by one of Lee's downward kicks. As soon as he was hit Gaara felt pain near the back of his head and immediately set out a wave of sand to all areas which Lee dodged with even more ease while Suiiki remained playing possum, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

Lee disappeared once again and started to land more blows on Gaara and even released the _**Gate of Pain**_ before kicking Gaara skywards and wrapping him in bandages and using the _**Hidden Lotus.**_

As soon as they hit the floor Lee jumped away and looked at his work until Gaara's body began to decay as if it were made out of sand. The sand that replaced Gaara's body moved for Lee until he jumped away in the air towards Suiiki's direction.

' _Perfect, no matter how fast you are you won't dodge this'_ Suiiki thought before throwing multiple kunai at Lee.

As Lee began to dodge a few of the kunai he didn't notice Suiiki jumping off of the wall with his sword ready to put the finishing blow on Lee.

"Lee!" Tenten yelled for Lee to look up and see Suiiki going to attack him the same way he tried to surprise Gaara.

Lee looked up and found himself in a terrible spot; he knew he couldn't move in time, hopefully thinking the blade would miss something vital Lee put his arms in the way.

Right before Suiiki could make contact he was grabbed by a mass of sand that wrapped around both of his shoulders as well as his chest and upper back.

Lee had fallen to the ground and turned to see Gaara standing a distance away from them missing the side of his head that was repairing itself as sand. Gaara had his hand open showing the palm before speaking.

"You won't take away my pleasure in killing him, I'll remove you right now" he said before closing his hand and shouting _**"Sand Burial"**_

The sand around Suiiki's upper body then imploded and crushed his upper body into a bloody heap before dropping him to the ground.

Suiiki began to scream as soon as the sand imploded and stopped as soon as he hit the ground. Yamato and Yugao quickly jumped down between the three contestants while checking Suiiki who was still alive but fading out of consciousness.

"Contestant Suiiki of the Waterfall is no longer capable of battle and has been eliminated." Hayate informed the crowd

Lee was still caught off guard by what just happened and didn't even notice another Gaara standing right behind him. Both Gaara and his _**Sand Clone**_ sent waves of sand at Lee who was back on the defensive until he was caught off guard by a giant hand of sand that barely missed him, although it's only job was to distract him.

Gaara then shot broken off pieces of sand at Lee which connected to his lower left leg. As soon as the sand made contact with his leg it began to burrow into his leg and render it immobile to Gaara's liking. Gaara then had his sand wrap around Lee and was about the use the same technique he used on Lee until Guy prevented him by swiping his sand away.

"Hayate I'm afraid you'll have to disqualify Lee, as I cannot allow him to continue in this fight." Guy started while looking at Lee's expression of excruciating pain on his face from the sand that was still within his leg "Young Gaara, can you release your sand from my student's body?" Guy asked looking at the jinchuriki

"You meddlesome mother hen…" Gaara said before walking off not bothering to remove the sand from Lee's leg.

Guy knowing he now wouldn't remove the sand left the arena and took Lee to the infirmary to see if they could remove it from his leg.

"The winner of the first fight is Gaara Sabaku of the Hidden Sand." Hayate said as Gaara walked up the stairs back towards his team. "Now the next fight shall be between Fuu of the Waterfall, Kuzo of the Rain, and Omoi of the Cloud. If you would all make your way down here."

Just before Kuzo was going to make his way down the stadium he raised his right arm, that wasn't damaged and informed Hayate that he was unable to battle due to his injury and forfeit.

"Alright then will Fuu of the Waterfall and Omoi of the Cloud continue to make their way down here for battle?" Hayate said

 **Fuu v Omoi**

Fuu and Omoi began to make their way down to the lower level. Well Fuu jumped down while Omoi took a roundhouse kick from his teammate Karui, who he had just called flat-chested, which resulted in him taking a tumble down to the lower level.

"If you all are ready now," Hayate started, getting nods from both competitors, "Same rules as before, protect yourself at all times and follow my orders, begin!" Hayate finished before making distance between the two genin.

Fuu immediately dashed for Omoi who was caught off guard by her speed. Reeling back her fist Fuu threw an easily deciphered punch, although Omoi easily dodged the blow he was shocked to see that Fuu created another crater in the arena with just one punch.

' _Dear Heavens, not another Tsunade…'_ Hiruzen thought

Omoi unsheathed his sword and began to dodge more easily read fists before seeing an opening and swinging his blade to cut Fuu in the shoulder to where she'd have to forfeit.

As soon as the blade made contact with Fuu's shoulder it stopped and made a clanging noise as if it connected with another metal.

' _What the… Alright looks like I'm going to have to use that jutsu'_ Omoi thought

Omoi put his hands into a familiar seal before calling out the _**Shadow Clone Jutsu**_ where four clones popped into existence and surrounded Fuu. Fuu seeing there was no way for her to dodge all three blades grew six wings and began to fly upwards.

Omoi who was going to use his patented _**Hidden Mist Slice**_ was caught off guard once again when he saw the mint-haired kunoichi sprout wings and begin to fly toward him. Steeling himself and hoping for the best while expecting the worst, Omoi brought his sword down in a downward thrust where he made contact with Fuu.

Fuu's arm was slightly pierced by the blade until she removed it and grabbed onto Omoi by his jacket. Still flying upwards she was now above the second level where everybody was standing and began to spin Omoi around in a whirling motion until everything was a blur and beamed Omoi to the ground, creating the fourth crater of the day.

'They sure are flashy little kids…' Hiruzen thought thinking back to his days as a sensei to Jiraiya.

' _Now it's time to finish this Chomei…'_ Fuu mentally communicated with her tailed beast before gathering just enough chakra for her to still be somewhat subtle.

Flying down almost as fast as she tossed the now downed Omoi, Fuu came down with a whirlwind-like force flowing around her before yelling _**Hidden Waterfall Hurricane**_ and connecting the finishing blow to Omoi.

Hayate came down and inspected Omoi before ruling him incapable of battle.

"The winner of the second match is Fuu of the Waterfall…" Hayate began before turning his attention back to the monitor. "Will Haitsuchi of the Rock, Temari Sabaku of the Sand and Shikamaru Nara of the Leaf make their way to the lower level…" He finished

The three competitors made their way to the arena and Shikamaru already had five different situations going through his mind. He knew there was no way he'd be able to beat Temari in a closed up space if she was as good with the wind style as he thought she was. He looked over to Haitsuchi and could tell he would most likely be his first opponent.

' _What a drag, if I can wait it out long enough and catch them off guard I'll easily win. However, if one of them is eliminated easily I'll really have to pull something then… is it still too late to forfeit?'_ Shikamaru thought before remembering his mother told Ino to fill her in on everything that occurs during the exams

 **Haitsuchi v Temari v Shikamaru**

"Are the competitors ready?" Hayate asked getting curt nods from all three "Begin!"

Haitsuchi quickly formed the sign of confrontation before expelling multiple humanoid creatures made of composed of rock from his mouth. Temari merely responded by swinging her fan that was laced with wind chakra that sent multiple air currents towards the golems and ended up bouncing off the walls and slightly catching Shikamaru.

Shikamaru covered his eyes and upon opening them again he noticed that the golems appeared unharmed and he had small cuts throughout his shirt from the ricocheting air currents.

' _Man, wonder if I get rid one of these guys and give up mom would lay off…'_ Shikamaru thought before pulling out a kunai laced with a paper bomb and threw it in the direction of the golems.

The explosion went off yet only one of the three golems began to crumble. Haitsuchi stayed behind his golems and waited for a clearance to attack. Temari was upset that neither her jutsu nor the explosion had done any serious damage to the golems and prepared to launch another attack until a bright flash went off.

Shikamaru used a flash bomb to distract his opponents as well as get closer to the Rock ninja and his golems and before attaching his shadow to the golems.

Haitsuchi began to wonder the meaning behind the flash until he had to dodge one of his golems, he noticed the other two golems were defending Shikamaru and was about to cut the chakra from them until he heard Temari repeat her earlier jutsu of the _**Ninja Art: Wind Scythe Jutsu**_ and took the brunt of the blow before coming back down.

Haitsuchi was about to get back up until his own earth golem had its fist cocked back and heard Shikamaru, "the moment you twitch I'll lay you out with your own jutsu, just give up."

Haitsuchi was in a tough position, yes he knew he should give up but he'd never hear the end of it from Kurotsuchi or the Tsuchikage that he was easily outsmarted by a Leaf ninja and beat with his own jutsu no less. Unintentionally flinching when he saw Kurotsuchi's gaze, the next thing Haitsuchi felt was a boulder coming down on the back of his head before darkness claimed him.

'Sheesh, didn't think Shika had it in him. Now he just needs to get rid of tha-"

Ino's thought was immediately interrupted as Shikamaru stood up dropping his kunai and forfeiting.

"You what?!" Temari bellowed, unhappy that she was unable to even cause harm to any of her opponents

"Yeah…I'm already running kind of low on chakra from the second portion of the exam" Shikamaru lied before continuing "So I don't think I'll be able to continue, proctor?" Shikamaru finished

"You've got to be kidding me Shikamaru! You easily got rid of the other guy now you have her one on one. Can't you finish the fight?!" Ino yelled at her teammate

'Troublesome woman, just let me forfeit so I can go back to watching clouds as soon as possible.' Shikamaru thought while mentally pleading to the proctor to call the fight

"Due to forfeit, Temari Sabaku of the Sand is the winner of the third match."

"Will Kurotscuhi of the Rock, Kiba Inuzuka of the Leaf and Karui of the Cloud please make their way down to the lower level…" Hayate said

Meanwhile, on his way up the stairs Shikamaru was preparing to tune out his blonde teammate until the Hokage himself stopped him and spoke to him.

"Tell me Shikamaru, why did you really stop the fight, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't lie to me like you did your opponent." Hiruzen said

Sighing aloud while rubbing the back of his head Shikamaru informed him that there was no way he'd be able to beat Temari in such an enclosed space due to her wind attacks as well as the lack of shadows her jutsu would produce. Hiruzen was happy with the answers and let Shikamaru go on his way after mentally noting the Leaf possibly picked up their newest chunin.

Thinking of chunin that could come from this tournament Hiruzen turned his attention to his grandson before the fight started.

What Hiruzen saw slightly startled him, not only was Naruto already looking at him, but Naruto had a scowl on his face that reminded him of Orochimaru. Hiruzen kept his gaze on Naruto hoping to see something else from the boy but got nothing except a slight narrowing of his eyes, he'd have to ask Kakashi if something happened.

Kakashi who still couldn't pay attention to the fights occurring decided enough was enough looking at Naruto who had a glower focused at the Hokage for the past five minutes. Kakashi approached Naruto from behind and placed his hand on his shoulder before feeling a cold chill go through his body.

Subtly pulling up his headband to reveal his sharingan, Kakashi noticed Naruto had quite a bit of irregular chakra flowing through him but it was flowing strongly whenever it got near his right shoulder.

Naruto turned his scowl to Kakashi and began to turn loose from his grasp until Kakashi clutched down on his left shoulder even tighter.

"Naruto, is something the matter?" Kakashi asked

Naruto currently wasn't in the right frame of mind due to the curse mark on his shoulder, Orochimaru made sure the mark not only had his essence placed into Naruto but the mark reacted violently to other marks, including Anko who was not too far from Naruto and his team.

Sai and Sayuri both looked at Naruto and Kakashi and noticed the tension between the two sibling-like figures. Sayuri informed Kakashi of what occurred in the forest but in the end wanted to chalk it up to being in a high-stress situation. But looking at him now Kakashi began to wonder if Naruto truly was undergoing something, he seemed a tad too cold to be bluffing to just scare his opponents.

"…" Naruto didn't reply but kept scowling and turned it to Anko who noticed

Anko made a face at Kakashi which basically said 'put your genin on a leash before I do it for you'. Kakashi was lost first the Hokage, then himself and now Anko. Just what was up with Naruto?

Kakashi was going to distantly reply to Anko until he saw her approaching him. 'Oh boy just what I need, now Anko's really going to start bitc-'

Naruto grabbed his right shoulder and began to release a small bit of chakra due to Anko's proximity to him. Kakashi was now caught off guard at his younger brother who was now kneeling on the ground and hissing in pain while grabbing his shoulder. Sai was now on high alert remembering his conversation with Naruto and wondering what would happen if he had to kill him in front of everyone. Anko was now right next to Kakashi and Naruto and began speaking.

"You know brat just because you're on your period doesn't mean you have to make crazy faces at everyone." Anko said

"Not now Anko…" Kakashi began "Do me a favor, when Naruto's match begins ask Hayate to delay it if we aren't back."

"Whoa, just because the kid is in a little pain doesn't mean you can take him to go get checked out, he's a genin and competitor like everyone else out here." Anko said grabbing Kakashi's arm, preventing him from leaving

Kakashi had his hand on Naruto's shoulder while Anko had her hand on his arm. As soon as Anko touched Kakashi Naruto had an outburst that was near deafening. The match going on between Kiba, Karui and Kurotsuchi even hesitated for a moment when they heard him yell. Sai immediately felt the chakra get stronger and unsheathed his tanto, Sayuri who saw this panicked and grabbed onto Sai before slamming him to the wall behind him.

' _What the fuck is going on?'_ Thought Anko and Kakashi at the same time 'Was Sai really about to do what I think he was?' Kakashi thought before Naruto took a swipe at Anko who moved just in time.

As soon as Anko let go of him, Kakashi teleported him and Naruto out of the room. Everybody who was on the second floor caught the exchange and began to wonder what was going on. Due to Sayuri and Sai never being confronted by Orochimaru, they were both unaware of the curse mark that was placed on Naruto.

 **Underground the Arena**

"Naruto do you realize you probably just got yourself disqualified? Tell me what happened in the forest since you were the one separated from the group" Kakashi asked

Naruto immediately began to calm down since the distance between he and Anko had been lengthened. He looked at Kakashi with a tired expression and began to explain everything he could remember.

"Kakashi, you have to keep Anko away from me…"

"Good luck with that, she's not going to be happy about that cheap sho-"

"That's not what I'm talking about, I understand what he meant when he said to talk to Anko about the seal" He replied

"He? Anko…? Seal? Naruto what happened in the forest."

Naruto began to explain everything that happened in the forest including his altercation with Orochimaru and explained to Kakashi that he didn't remember killing any Rain ninja or even saving anyone. Kakashi wasn't one to panic but the first thing that began to go through his head was if Naruto's life was too good to be true, if this seal was that bad then Naruto was in big trouble.

"*sigh* Alright Naruto, I'm going to try and do a quick _**Curse Sealing**_."

"But that'll take too long, even if you try to be quick about it. I'll miss my match by the time you're finished with this!" Naruto said

"Naruto this is more than just a match, if I don't put this seal on you as soon as I can before you have to fight again you might lose it. You can no longer use your own chakra with this mark on you, we need to do this right now whether you like it or not." Kakashi said with a tone that meant no arguing

Kakashi quickly teleported back to the outside and noticed the match that they left was ending with Kurotsuchi being the winner. Kakashi approached Yugao and tried to be as discreet as possible.

"Yugao, I need your assistance at the moment…"

"Captain I don't think right no-" Yamato began before Yugao interrupted in a hushed tone

"What's wrong with Naruto?" Yugao questioned not taking her eyes off the battlefield

"…Naruto had a curse mark placed on him in the forest by Orochimaru." Kakashi replied

The three proctors looked at him with shock on their faces, was Orochimaru good enough to sneak in the Chunin Exams and not be noticed? Who's to say he wasn't disguised as someone who was currently in the room with them?

"I can't go right now Kakashi, take Kurenai she should be able to go" Yugao said

Kakashi quickly explained to Kurenai who agreed, Kurenai came to like Naruto and figured if she could help Kakashi with the _**Curse Sealing**_ then he could try and fight in the tournament.

Before they left, Kakashi and Kurenai heard Hayate call out the next match who featured Hinata, Sayuri and the last Waterfall ninja by the name of Shinrin. Kakashi and Kurenai both gave their students an apologetic look and left to start the _**Curse Sealing**_

Sayuri remembered that Kakashi asked Anko if she could get Hayate to halt the match and seeing how Anko was still upset with Naruto she took it into her own hands to prolong her fight as long as she could.

' _You better thank me and kick some serious ass when you get back here Naruto…'_ Sayuri thought

Back underneath the arena Kurenai and Kakashi were starting to write out markings around the curse mark.

"Naruto this is one of the quickest methods when it comes to suppressing things like this however it is painful so I need you to bear with us alright?" Kurenai said

"Let's do this; I can take pain Kurenai Sensei, the quicker we do this the quicker I can get through my match." Naruto stated sitting still like a statue

Kakashi began to run through hand signs while Kurenai finished the last markings on his body.

"Naruto when I place my hand down on the mark I want you to focus your chakra as much as you can away from it. Like Kurenai said, this will be more than a sting so you're going to have to endure it. _**Curse Sealing!"**_ Kakashi called out

Naruto bit down onto his lower lip and punctured it as blood ran out of his mouth at the searing sensation. Inside of his head Naruto could hear that the voice in his head was fading away until he couldn't quite hear it anymore. Naruto was happy that he could no longer hear the voice but he'll be damned if he wasn't in pain. Kurama couldn't heal him due to the fact the only people who knew the _**Five Pronged Seal Release**_ were the Hokage and his students. Hiruzen couldn't leave at the moment so Naruto would have to go through the first round before getting it removed due to Jiraiya and Tsunade not being in the area.

Kurenai seeing the sealing was successful bid the brothers adieu and returned to the arena. Upon reaching the arena she noticed that Sayuri and Hinata were the only two left in the match and hoped Hinata would fare well against the Uchiha.

"Well we shouldn't keep them waiting, you never know if your match is next. Remember, nothing besides taijutsu in your fight until Lord Third can get this other seal off of you alright?" Kakashi said with a slight smile

"I know you aren't talking about me being late Kakashi…" Naruto said before standing up

"Goodness Naruto, if I didn't know any better I would think you're saying I'm late on purpose all the time." Kakashi said to a deadpanned Naruto before putting his hand on top of his head and teleporting back to the arena

Upon his arrival everyone slightly cringed at seeing Naruto's return, Kakashi discreetly nodded towards the Hokage and returned his attention back to the match.

Naruto who saw the look on everybody's faces decided to do something that would show everyone he was slightly better, "Let's go Sayuri! You said you'd beat me in the next round right?!" Naruto bellowed from the second level

Sayuri hated it that she was slightly put on the spot and reengaged Hinata for another three minutes before ending the fight in her favor with her brother's _**Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Shuriken Jutsu.**_

"The winner of the fifth match is Sayuri Uchiha…" Hayate said "Will Naruto Uzumaki of the Leaf, Akatsuchi of the Rock and Kagetsu Hozuki of the Mist make their way down to the lower level?"

Upon hearing the other names Naruto was slightly disappointed he got Kagetsu instead of Haku or Chojuro since he couldn't have a partner to help eliminate Akatsuchi first.

Once all three competitors were down on the battle field facing each other Hayate told them the rules again and was about to begin the fight until Zabuza interrupted.

"Kagetsu, catch!" Zabuza yelled before chucking the Executioner's Blade at his student who caught it with a smirk. "That brat is something else, you'll need it…" Zabuza finished while looking Kakashi in the eye.

Naruto was slightly cursing, not only did he have only enough chakra to run and stick on walls but now he had to deal with Zabuza's blade again.

"If that's all…Begin!" Hayate called

Kagetsu and Akatsuchi immediately rushed Naruto who evaded the both of them and found he was not being able to counterattack either one of them without having to take a serious blow from the other. With Akatsuchi swinging those fists made of rock around along with Kagetsu the Executioner's Blade, Naruto was surprised neither one had hit each other.

' _Man, this guy is way too quick on his feet.'_ Kagetsu thought before taking a peek at the Rock ninja not too far from him.

Kagetsu then turned and began to go up against Akatsuchi who was upset he had to stop fighting Naruto. Akatsuchi and Kagetsu began to trade blows while Naruto merely waited for the perfect opportunity, little did Naruto know that opportunity would come in the form of the sword Akatsuchi just dislodged Kagetsu's grip.

Naruto looked at the sword, and then looked at Kagetsu, back at the sword, once towards Zabuza and more time at the sword.

' _Ah what the hell? I'll give it back to Zabuza when I'm done with it.'_ Naruto thought

Upon watching Naruto raise the sword Zabuza made a mental note to chew Kagetsu out and intimidate Naruto for using it when it was all said and done. 'Kid's got cheek, using the Exeutioner's Blade. What blade will you use now Kagetsu?' Zabuza thought

Unknown to everyone in the tournament except his team, Kagetsu Hozuki was a collector of the Legendary Blades of the Hidden Mist. Starting the fight with Zabuza's Executioner Blade he was also in possession of the Sewing Needle, Helmet Splitter, Blastsword and Thunderswords.

Kagetsu formed a snake hand seal before using _**Water Style: Exploding Water Shock Wave**_ which filled the lower level up ¾ of the way to the second level. Kagetsu then used _**Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Jutsu**_

' _So now he's getting serious… well let's see what you got brat.'_ Zabuza thought

' _This kid must be a prodigy swordsman; he's already turned the tide in his favor.'_

"I got to admit, I've only used this technique against Master Zabuza. At least you two can say you got to witness it." Kagetsu said before three water clones emerged from the water.

" _ **Lightning Style: Depth Charge"**_ Kagetsu yelled out

' _Oh damn, got to move.'_ Naruto thought before jumping from out of the water only to be met by Kagetsu who was holding the Helmet Splitter and struck with the axe before hammering it through the Executioner's Blade breaking it.

'You got to be kidding me… And I still can't see him or feel his emotions since I'm still cut off from Kurama.' Naruto thought before dodging another swipe at the last moment.

Naruto was about to run again until he heard a loud explosion followed by Kagetsu yelling "Rock boy here is no longer involved proctor" before heaving the large Akatsuchi to the second level.

'Son of a bitch, how the hell am I supposed to get to him through this mist?' Naruto thought before almost plunging into the water from his lack of chakra. 'Wait a minute Zabuza once said this blade can reform if itself using the iron harvested from the blood of its victims. This'll hurt but it's my only choice.' Naruto thought before dragging the jagged edge of the blade across his left arm.

The blade immediately began to regenerate and Naruto went back on the defense guarding against the multiple blade wielders. Naruto then noticed they were attacking in a pattern and timed it again before cutting down the clone that was carrying Sewing Needle.

Now holding both blades Naruto was on the offensive and actually outdueled Mangetsu in a test of swordsmanship, much to the Hozuki's ire.

Now very awkwardly Naruto was holding all five blades and waiting on Kagetsu's next attack. He noticed the mist had begun to slack although he still couldn't see Kagetsu at all.

Kagetsu was using his clan's secret _**Liquefy Jutsu**_ and was slowly rising out of the water behind Naruto. Lifting his hands which were still in a slight liquefied state Kagets caught Naruto with the _**Drowning Water Blob Technique**_ preventing him from breathing.

Naruto knew he was in a terrible situation, if he dropped the swords he'd basically be starting the fight over, although if he held onto them he'd be out in a short moment. Naruto chose option number three and cut the chakra off at the soles of his feet and dropped into the water below. Once reaching the bottom of the water Naruto placed down all of the swords except the Explosive Blade.

Nearing his way to the top of the water he was surprised to see four Kagetsus with the blades he had just placed down. Apparently Mist ninja are half fish because Naruto never even saw Kagetsu in the water with him.

Naruto then took out a kunai and sliced away at the paper bombs on the sword before unravelling an enormous length of them which surrounded him and all of his oppositions.

"Hey you idiot! You'll blow us all away if you use that many paper bombs!" Kagetsu yelled knowing not even he would be able to avoid the explosion caused by the sword.

"Forfeit and I won't use it…" Naruto said

"Like hell I will, _**Lightning Style: Dep-"**_

"You asked for it!" Naruto interrupted the Hozuki before the large explosion went off blowing multiple holes in the walls as well as getting rid of most of the water in the stadium.

When the smoke cleared Kagetsu and Naruto were both seen faced down and unconscious. Hayate jumped down and was about to call the match a draw until Naruto began to stir and moved to rise.

Everyone was surprised to see Naruto moving until they turned horrified noticing his left arm was mangled to the point it almost looked as if would have to be amputated. The arm hung limply as Naruto pushed himself up to stand long enough to declare he ws the last one standing before passing out again.

Tsunade was running like a bat out of hell, her grandson had just shown his recklessness to win a preliminary and now he may have to get his arm amputated. The first thing she was going to do was try to heal him, then she'd scold him for being so reckless, and when he was back to 100% she'd beat him down to 10% and repeat the cycle.

Upon entering the sickbay Tsunade was met by Shizune who was informed by Hiruzen that Tsunade should begin the treatment by using the _**Five Pronged Seal Release**_ to free the Nine Tails' chakra from as well as get rid of Orochimaru's curse seal.

Naruto would wake up three days later to a disheveled Tsunade who was using his thigh as her pillow. Naruto noticed that from his left elbow down to the fingertips was bandaged like Neji's. His left shoulder still had a slight singed look but wasn't in too much pain, mainly tender.

' _Might as well face the music now'_ Naruto thought before a booming voice echoed throughout his head

' _ **You blasted heathen! I informed you the minute we began to fight that snake to go all out. But the minute he mentions your grandmother's lover you allow yourself to get distracted!'**_

' _Kurama you're back. Oh man am I glad to hear you, it's been way too l-'_

' _ **I should have let you die, however I will not allow myself to fall victim to something as lowly as those legless lizards. We WILL be training in you being able to utilize more of my chakra since three tails is obviously not enough for your pathetic skills.'**_

' _And here we goooo…'_

For the next ten minutes Kurama began to berate Naruto and informed him when the seal was placed over his own that it felt like he had multiple torii holding him down. As soon as they were down with the one-sided conversation Naruto reopened his eyes and gently shook his grandmother awake.

Tsunade looked up at her grandson and blinked three times before smothering him into a hug. As soon as the party outside of the room heard the commotion they quietly opened the door and peeked in to see Tsunade hugging Naruto. Although they were told not to enter the room by Tsunade herself they couldn't help but walk in and stand near the door.

When Tsunade let go of the hug she grabbed Naruto by the sides of his face and placed a kiss on his forehead with tears of joy. She then flicked him on the stomach with a bit of chakra and told him he was stupid for doing something like that.

Holding onto his stomach one of the first individuals he spotted in the crowd was Kakashi.

"Hey Kakashi how'd the rest of the Chunin Exams go?"

"Goodness Naruto, don't you think you should be focused on healing before you go off training? Well Hitsuke of the Rain ended up winning her fight against a puppeteer and Zabuza's other swordsman student. Sai ended up forfeiting to Samui after overpowering Tenten. Haku beat Shino and Choji with her Ice Style and Neji… well let's just say it wasn't much of a contest between Neji Ino and the last Rain ninja." Kakashi informed his student.

"Wow, sounds like it's going to be a rough final, wait, what are the matchups? Please don't tell me we're still doing three-man fights."

"No, it's all one on one from here on out. The first match will be Neji against Samui, then our favorite Uchiha against Hitsuke" Kakashi paused and gave Naruto a look that said explain what happened between Sayuri and Hitsuke "The third match will be Temari against Gaara, then Haku versus Kurotsuchi. And your match will be last against Fuu, the jinchuriki of the Waterfall."

Naruto took in everything Kakashi said and began to wonder if Kurama knew he'd be facing another jinchuriki so soon.

"Well with all that said, I have both you and Sayuri to train. I don't want for the both of you to train together so I'll use my shad-"

"No need Kakashi, I'll sit out your training this go around" Naruto interrupted

"What…?" Kakashi asked surprised his little brother just shirked his offer so easily.

"I already have my training schedule planned out, well most of it, and I believe it'd be best if I'd do it my way. No offense y'know" Naruto finished rubbing his head realizing how rude he appeared to come off

"No it's understandable, perfectly understandable. I was just um…well you know, hoping to pass down a certain technique to you." Kakashi said with a hint of sadness

"It'll be the first thing I learn after I win the finals Kakashi I promise." Naruto replied with a gigawatt smile

For the next half hour everyone spoke to Naruto and reminded him that if he ever needed something they were all a call away. One by one they began to exit the room until it was only Tsunade and Sayuri left. Sayuri had been silent the whole time only looking at Naruto's arm and his smile.

' _This idiot should be dead, he's lucky Zabuza's student is still alive or we could've been in some serious trouble in our off time'_ Sayuri thought before she felt a hand placed on her shoulder. Looking up she saw Tsunade mentally giving her the greenlight to go to Naruto before exiting the room herself.

As soon as she was in arm's reach of Naruto she was pulled onto the bed and kissed deeply. Although he was still tender he could handle Sayuri's light frame as she responded by deepening the kisses. After taking a breath for air he kissed her once on the forehead before smiling again. Instead of speaking she simply laid there and relished in his arms with a smile of her own.

The next day Naruto was released from the hospital and in a hyperactive manner ousted out his chakra which shook everyone around him. Hiashi's eyes slightly widened before he excused himself along with Neji stating they needed to get back to training. Kakashi and Fugaku were both surprised although they hid it well and took Sayuri to go train. Tsunade informed Naruto that he'd be with her during the evenings for more training. Naruto then summoned the battle toad Gamahiro before hopping off in the directions of the training grounds but not before destroying a few platforms and frames. Nobody noticed him being followed.

For the next month Naruto began to train in solitude within the Senju compound as well as the tenth training ground thanks to Asuma. He ended up meeting his opponent Fuu who was a really cheerful girl although he could tell that deep down she was nervous and afraid. After letting the girl know they actually carried the same burden she began to cry for him as he also explained the one attempt on his life. Fuu was happy to know that the second friend she made knew exactly how her life was.

Although Naruto wasn't publicly slandered or hated he knew from the emotions he felt when walking around the village that some of the villagers didn't want him near them or their loved ones. Naruto went on to hang out with Fuu every other day during his training at the training grounds and even caught her spying on him once to where she replied that she was lonely and his big heart wouldn't turn her away.

Fuu, who was thankful to Naruto for allowing her to stay around him gave him some extra pointers on how to coordinate more of Kurama's chakra with his own which helped him gain the Four-Tailed state.

Today Naruto's training was much quieter, Fuu was still around but she was real quiet considering how she use to behave. Ironically, Naruto wasn't able to focus as well with the noiselessness. He turned his attention to Fuu who was looking in an opposite direction but he could tell she was slightly worried.

"Fuu, what's the matter? You're usually more talkative than this…"

"Umm, Naruto? Chomei says he wants to talk to Kurama." Fuu responded

' _Hey Kurama how do we do that?'_

' _ **You must make physical contact as well as eye contact with Chomei's container for us to maintain a shared mindscape.'**_

"Okay he says we just have to make physical contact while looking in each other's eyes and they'll take over from there."

Fuu stepped forward and was confused on how she should interact with Naruto until he put a hand on her shoulder and motioned for her to do the same. As soon as they made eye contact they felt pulls at the back of their heads that they gave into.

" **Ah Kurama, it's been far too long since we've seen each other"** said the gigantic horned beetle in a happy manner

" **You never change Chomei, to see that you've not only been captured but also placed inside of one whose behavior corresponds to your own."** Kurama replied

The whole time the two estranged tail beasts were conversating Naruto and Fuu merely watched on for what almost seemed an eternity. Supposedly the both of them were created along with seven others by a man they called Father Sage. They were all created for the means of keeping peace in certain areas of the ninja world but instead humans began to capture them and use them as weapons. After Fuu was comforted by a sobbing Chomei much to Naruto's confusion and Kurama's irritation Kurama turned to his container and began to shout.

" **Get out of here boy!"**

"Rude much? You could've just s-"

" **You are such a buffoon! Chomei! Our reunion is over. Shukaku is here…"**

Before Naruto could reply to Kurama he was impaled by Kurama's nail in the same manner his parents were, forcing him out of the shared mindscape. Naruto and Fuu both awakened in the same position they travelled into their shared mindscape.

Naruto looked over at a few trees before speaking up.

"Fuu get behind me, you can come out now, and we know you're here."

Out stepped a redhead with a massive gourd strapped across his back. Naruto examined the boy and saw that he had the kanji for love etched right above his left eye. Before he was able to speak the boy began to leak his Tailed Beast's chakra, an action Naruto mimicked albeit to a much larger degree.

All around the Hidden Leaf people began to feel the Nine Tails chakra being expelled and started to move over to safe areas while a few ninja made their way to the location the chakra was being released.

Upon arriving all of the leaf ninja as well as Mei Terumi, Utakata, Yugito and Han came to see a slightly shaken Fuu standing behind Naruto whose eyes were now red and slit as well as Gaara who had a maniacal grin on his face. Everyone stayed still for a moment until a few Sand ninja jumped behind Gaara.

Fugaku then stepped up and his eyes morphed into the mangekyo, "Call off the boy before I put him to sleep Sand ninja…"

"Gaara! That's enough, if you wish to fight one of them wait for the finals. You don't have much longer to anticipate." Yelled the only adult Baki

"Uzumaki… when we fight it won't be for a ranking. It will be for our lives; I will prove my existence against you and feed mother your blood." He then turned his gaze everyone behind Fugaku and Naruto, "If any of you attempt to impede on our fight I'll kill you…"

Naruto then began to laugh with a slightly deepened voice before responding, "I expect nothing less from the jinchuriki of the One-Tailed Shukaku"

After the Sand ninja left Naruto made sure Fuu was alright and Sayuri looked on wondering why he was with his opponent in the first place as well as why they were so close with each other. Fuu had never been exposed to killing intent that was fueled with tailed beast chakra, so in response to it she almost lost her lunch as well as fell to her knees.

"Fuu are you alright? I'm sorry for not warning you but I had to make sure that we'd be alright." Naruto informed helping Fuu to her feet. She was still slightly shaken but upon seeing Naruto's face she quickly hugged him to which he responded by soothing her.

Today was the day of the finals of the Chunin Exams and we find all ten participants on the field awaiting the commencement of the finals. If only the Kazekage would've arrived on time. In the Kage's box were Hiruzen who was guarded by a transformed Jiraiya and Tsunade. A, the fourth Raikage, who was guarded by Darui and C. Onoki was guarded by Kitsuchi as well as the jinchuriki of the Five Tails, Han. Finally there was Mei, who was guarded by Ao and the jinchuriki of the Six Tails, Utakata.

"What is taking the Kazekage so long? My back is getting tight in this damn chair" complained Onoki

"I agree, for not only a Kage yet a father to be late to two of his own children's tournament. Hn, it's about time" A said upon noticing the Kazekage's arrival

"I apologize for my tardiness my fellow Kage, shall we get the finals underway?" The disguised Orochimaru asked. He was accompanied by the Sound Ninja Four who were using a combined transformation technique to mask themselves as Sand ninja.

Hiruzen then gave Genma who was replacing a now deceased Hayate as proctor for the finals the go ahead to begin the finals.

After going over the same rules as before he motioned for everyone besides Neji and Samui to leave the battle grounds.

Inwardly Hiashi was sure that Neji could compete with the Cloud kunoichi and defeat her in battle but he was worried that Neji would unnecessarily kill the girl. During their training Neji was showing signs of being almost heartless when reminding himself of his opponent, sending a few Hyuga to the hospital.

Genma began the match and Neji made the first move by throwing kunai at Samui to move her to a certain spot on the field. As soon as she was in the spot Neji immediately went in for the kill but was stopped by Samui who extended both of her hands before flying through hand signs and shooting a barrier of water from her mouth before going through more hand seals and encasing herself along with the water in lightning.

Neji was slightly stunned from the lightning imbued water before rising back to his feet. Samui rushed Neji with her tanto and was quickly put back on the defensive as Neji was able to easily overpower her in close range combat. Samui then threw a kunai at Neji who easily dodged it. As soon as the kuani went past him another Samui poofed into place from the kunai and grabbed Neji before dispersing into a shroud of lightning.

' _Lightning clone? Damn it, I can't take too many of these types of blows.'_ Neji thought in rage

Neji slowly stood up while Samui was closing in on him again with the intent to end the fight until two hands emerged from the ground, stopping Samui dead in her tracks.

'What the? No Hyuga has ever used jutsu outside of their clan's fighting style.' Samui thought shocked

Meanwhile in the arena there were others who were also surprised at Neji's actions. Hiashi although taught Neji during their training to use jutsu outside of his clan's style just like his father had at one point in time. Hiashi went on to find out that Neji was an Earth style user which made his 'perfect defense' even stronger. Hiashi smirked with closed eyes before returning his attention to the fight.

Samui cut at the mud clone holding her before it was able to drag her into the ground. Looking up she saw Neji closing in on her and slashed him with her tanto also watching him turn into mud _. 'Two mud clones? What the hell is this kid'_ Samui thought

The real Neji then emerged from the ground and began using his clan's _**Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms**_ on Samui. Samui was now on the ground after being surprised by two mud clones and rendered immobile due to her chakra points being cut off.

As Genma was began to cease the fight and rule Neji the victor said Hyuga took off and aimed an attack at Samui's chakra point right above her heart. Yugito, Omoi, and Karui all began to move seeing Neji's intentions but were beaten by Naruto who stood in front of Samui with both arms extended. Neji skidded to a stop not trying to strike Naruto.

The three Cloud ninja landed on the battlefield behind the downed Samui while Yugito looked at Naruto with a curious face. Neji scowled at being stopped 'avenging' his father and demanded Naruto give him his reason for stopping him.

"The fight is over Neji, there's no reason for that. It won't bring him back and you know it…" Naruto replied saying the last part loud enough for him to hear it.

Neji knew of Naruto's situation and past just like Naruto knew of his. Neji was then surprised as Hiashi made his way down and called him over to speak with him in privacy. After leaving Yugito and Genma both approached Naruto while Omoi and Karui carried off their teammate.

"You know, Hokage's favorite or not if you do that again I'll be forced to disqualify you right?" Genma asked with a smirk

"Oh yeah, trust me, I've been reminded more than once…" Naruto replied rubbing the back of his head

"Uzumaki if I may?" Yugito asked before motioning him to follow her. "I know of your jinchuriki status thanks to your little confrontation and I just want to thank you for your actions of protecting my student. I'm also aware of the Hyuga-Cloud Affair, and I believe you should inform your comrade that although it cannot be forgotten or maybe even forgiven he should know that the Cloud no longer operates in such a manner." Yugito informed Naruto

"Don't worry about it, Neji is a little rough around the edged for a Hyuga but I'm sure if he comes around you'll be surprised with how nice he can actually be." Naruto replied

Meanwhile back on the battlefield Genma exhaled loudly before continuing the finals. "Will Sayuri Uchiha of the Leaf and Hitsuke Sanshouo of the Rain make their way to the field?"

Hitsuke strutted past Naruto before winking at him, which was just enough for a certain Uchiha to call her out of her name aloud.

Kakashi who was standing near Naruto along with the other jonin senseis mildly blushed. "Oh my, is that jealousy Naruto?" He asked teasing his little brother's relationship

"I've never heard Sayuri even say that before…" Naruto replied

"Don't look now but Lord Fugaku looks a tad curious as well" Kakashi said while giggling

Naruto who couldn't help it looked around for Fugaku and upon making eye contact with him gulped aloud, now seeing why he was also known as Wicked Eye Fugaku. Fugaku's gaze promised a future talk with the boy his wife considered a second son.

Genma smirked before initiating the fight between the two hostile kunoichi.

Sayuri immediately started the match by blowing out fireball after fireball at the Rain kunoichi. Hitsuke retorted by covering herself with water just like their previous encounter in the forest. Hitsuke smugly smirked at Sayuri before pulling out kunais that were laced with multiple paper bombs and spread them throughout the field.

' _If this girl is anywhere near as good with paper bombs like Hanzo Sayuri will have her work cut out for her.'_ Kakashi thought

Sayuri looked around and noted where each kunai was placed and immediately saw her strategy. Sayuri then put up a hand sign Naruto knew all too well.

' _No way, she can do that now to?'_ Naruto thought before two more Sayuris popped into existence

Both Sayuris then ran towards the closest kunais which Hitsuke detonated and dispelled them. Sayuri smirked seeing that her plan worked in widening the amount of room she had to work with. Sayuri and Hitsuke then began a battle with their respective blades, a ninjato for Sayuri and a kusarigama for Hitsuke. With their blades they proved to be an even match for each other until Sayuri used her sword to pin the chain between Hitsuke's sickles to a tree and grabbed the both of Hitsuke's hands. Trying to overpower each other they made eye contact before Sayuri smiled at her rival.

"Allow me to borrow this for a moment" said the Uchiha before she used her right hand to make Hitsuke's left hand to go through her favorite hand signs. Hitsuke who was surprised at slightly losing control over her own body albeit only a hand looked back at Sayuri only to receive a kick to the chest before Sayuri spat six fireballs her way. Hitsuke wasn't able to dodge all six fireballs but was elated to see where Sayuri currently was standing on the field.

Bringing her hand up in a half ram sign Hitsuke watched as Sayuri began to get covered by fire imbued paper bombs. She saw the look of panic on Sayuri's face and was ready to finish the battle.

"No! Wait, don't do it!" Sayuri yelled fearing for her life.

"Give up girly, it might not save you the embarrassment but it'll sure save your life." Hitsuke replied with a smirk

"Wait, before you do anything you should, you should… you should really take a look at yourself." Sayuri replied with her own smile

Confused Hitsuke then looked down at her feet and saw the exact same paper bombs that were wrapped around Sayuri were now smothering her. 'What, but when could she have?' Hitsuke thought before remembering that while she was fighting in close combat she made direct eye contact with the fully matured sharingan user.

Sayuri then lifted her hand in a half ram sign before speaking. "Now what was that you were saying? Oh yeah, give up girly, it might not save you the embarrassment but it'll sure save your life…" Sayuri said with a mocking tone

Hitsuke was now upset at losing like this. Not only had she been beaten by the Uchiha, who was Naruto's girlfriend, but she had been beaten with her own technique. She then gave Sayuri and Genma the signal that she surrendered.

"Winner of the fight, Sayuri Uchiha of the Leaf"

The crowd erupted seeing how their local 'princess' beat the Rain's own. Naruto was whooping for his significant other while standing next to a smiling Kakashi. Sayuri looked into the crowd and saw her family giving smiles and a look of approval from her father. She made her way up to the winners' box which was still vacant since Neji was still speaking with his uncle but not before passing Naruto and their sensei.

"I hope you're ready later on to lose. I expect to beat you in the finals." Sayuri said

"My, my, my, are we getting cocky now? Don't forget you aren't the only that has been training. Don't worry though I plan on taking you serious this go-round Sayu, wouldn't want to fall victim to your sharingan… or chidori." Naruto said mentioning the chidori low enough for her to hear.

"What the hell did you just say Uzumaki?" Sayuri said with a threatening tone

"Oh nothing, I'll meet you in the winner's circle" Naruto said before getting jacked up by Sayuri, subtlety be damned.

"How the hell did you know about that? Have you been spying on me Uzumaki? That's pretty underhanded for someone like you…" Sayuri said with her hands still pulling at Naruto's collar

"N- No, not at all, Kakashi wanted to pass down that technique to me and I remember that you're a lightning style user so I just figured he'd teach it to you. I swear I didn't even know that he taught it to you, it's all just a coincidence y'know?" Naruto replied slightly fearful of his girlfriend.

Sayuri eyed him for a few more seconds before loosening her hold on him, "You better not have been spying on my training…" she said before walking off

"Don't you mean spying on you?" Naruto asked aloud only to receive a wink from Sayuri

Confused for a minute he received a pat on the shoulder from Kakashi who was smiling at him before whispering to him.

"You're no better than Jiraiya Sensei y'know?" Naruto said with a deadpanned expression

"The next fight shall be between Temari Sabaku of the Sand and Gaara Sabaku of the Sand. If both fighters woul-"

"I forfeit!" yelled Temari, interrupting Genma

Exhaling to himself at being interrupted Genma responded "The winner of the third fight by forfeiture is Gaara Sabaku of the Sand. If Haku Yuki of the Mist and Kurotsuchi of the Rock could make their way down to start the fourth fight." Genma said

Up in the Kage's box Hiruzen slyly looked over towards Orochimaru who was already looking at him. "It appears Temari still isn't mentally prepared to face Gaara, such a shame…"

All of the other Kage knew of Gaara being an unstable jinchuriki and merely waved the Kazekage off. Hiruzen however was deep in thought, _'Orochimaru do you truly believe in yourself enough to take on your entire former team?'_ Hiruzen thought

Haku and Kurotsuchi's match began and the two kunoichi immediately began using their kekkei genkais. Haku threw multiple senbon made of ice that was melted by Kurotsuchi's blob of lava. Kurotsuchi kept Haku on the defensive by constantly spewing lava in the direction of the ice user until it connected with her revealing she was an ice clone. Haku then emerged from the trees and spat multiple torrents of water at Kurotsuchi which built up around the ground. Kurotsuchi was getting ready to return fire until the water around her rose up and attacked her in the form of senbons.

Kurotsuchi was now pissed, not only was Haku using a kekkei genkai but she was using one that Kurotsuchi believed to have been inferior to her own. Kurotsuchi then spat a torrent of her own water at Haku that made Haku dodge her again.

'A fight that's purely based off of kekkei genkai ninjutsu, amazing…" Kakashi thought to himself

Haku then knew that if she wanted to win she'd have to place herself in a situation where she'd ultimately last longer than her opponent. Haku went through some hand signs and the water around herself and Kurotsuchi rose and formed a dome around them before hardening into ice. Kurotsuchi quickly saw through her technique and shot a fireball at the dome and saw that it had no effect on it and began to fire lava at the domes which began to melt the dome.

Haku was surprised in seeing a part of her dome fall and immediately restored the melted corner before filling the dome itself with water. Kurotsuchi no knew there was no way for her to get out of this jutsu and still win as she was fatigued from all of the ninjutsu she was using. She then came up with a one more last ditch effort that she knew would kill her but could also make sure that Haku wouldn't win. Kurotsuchi wanted nothing more than to fight the boy who looked just like the Fourth Hokage and char him but she had no intentions of losing to another kekkei genkai user.

Kurotsuchi then made eye contact with Haku before going through hand signs and shooting out a large amount of quicklime which encased half of her own body as well as Haku's before Haku was able to dispel the dome which resulted in the water losing its shape. Haku was astonished at how far Kurotsuchi would go to not lose the fight and landed on the ground along with the stone connecting her and Kurotsuchi.

With a last ditch effort Haku threw multiple senbon with her free hand that Kurotsuchi responded with a kunai which hit their targets. Not being able to dodge Kurotsuchi took the three senbon around her collarbone area while Haku took the kunai right below her neck.

Zabuza was looking on hoping that however the fight ended it would just end soon, although he was always tough on Haku he couldn't stand to see his daughter-like figure taking shots like that. Kitsuchi was also watching his daughter and was slightly miffed that the girl almost encased herself in stone just make sure her opponent didn't win.

The two kunoichi were now battling with fatigue as well and thanks to the weapons they struck each other with they could feel the,selves losing consciousness. Haku was getting ready to fire some more senbon until her side of the rock connecting her and her enemy rose in the air.

Off of pure determination and strength, Kurotsuchi lifted the rock and took another combination of senbon to the shoulder region before slamming Haku back down on the ground, resulting in cracking the rock. Haku's head bounced off the ground before she blacked out and the senbon in Kurotsuchi's shoulder-neck region forced her into a sleep.

Genma looked at both participants before announcing the contest was a draw. It was dead silent before they erupted even louder than before in Sayuri's victory before Team Zabuza and Team Roshi jumped down and separated their respective kunoichi from the cracked stone and acknowledged each other with a nod.

After an earth style jutsu by Yamato that restructured the battlefield. "If Naruto Uzumaki of the Leaf and Fuu of the Waterfall would make their way down for fifth battle?" Genma called out

Naruto jumped down to the field while Fuu flew thanks to her tailed beast. Up in the winner's box Sayuri and Neji noticed Gaara had a sick smile on his face while looking at Naruto. Sayuri looked at Neji who nodded at her and kept their eyes on Gaara.

Naruto eyed down Fuu who looked slightly nervous at the notion of her fighting her only 'human' friend now that she also considered Kurama a friend since it was in Naruto. The fact that Naruto was playing mind games as well by looking at her like that wasn't helping either.

Naruto never took his eyes off of Fuu and was looking directly at her orange eyes. Right before Genma could finish his message to start the fight Naruto teleported right in front of Fuu with a kunai in hand.

Fuu was slightly taken aback at Naruto's behavior. Yes he was her opponent but he was also her first friend as well as her love interest. She flinched seeing how fast he really was and hardened her skin to take the blow from the kunai until she felt his other hand touch her shoulder and move her out of the way before hearing something that sounded like him cutting something.

Turning around she saw the sand fall back to the ground while Naruto made eye contact with Gaara who had that same look on his face. Neji and Sayuri moved in to strike Gaara down but were met by his defense while Gaara dissolved into sand himself. That was when Orochimaru gave the hidden Kabuto the signal to start the genjutsu.

The Sand ninja behind Orochimaru turned back into the Sound Ninja Four and threw kunai lace paper bombs at the Kage and succeeded in separating them from their guards while Orochimaru got ahold of Hiruzen. The Kage all landed on a building that Orochimaru took Hiruzen to with the transformed Jiraiya and Tsunade right on his tail. Before the guards from the other villages were able to get back to their Kage they were met by a barrier that was placed up by the Sound Ninja Four who then erected another barrier which protected them.

Naruto knew that the invasion was beginning as Genma jumped in between him and Baki who was planning on trying to get the drop on Naruto.

Kakashi, Zabuza, and Guy all jumped down began to give out orders.

"Naruto, you need to take down Gaara before he undergoes a transformation. Get yourself a team before you go after him just in case." Kakashi said while kicking away another Sound ninja "By the way boys, that's 7 already…" He finished flashing an eye smile to Guy and Zabuza

"Although you used my sword without my permission I'll assign Kagetsu to go and help you, Chojuro is still with Haku in the infirmary." Zabuza stated before cleaving a Sand ninja "Damn it that's only 5!"

"Lee is still injured and I'm currently unaware of Tenten's location but Neji should be near the winner's box with the youthful Sayuri." Guy added before punching a Sound ninja clear out of the stadium. "Ha! That's 7 Kakashi!" Guy finished only to hear Kakashi was now on 10

Naruto and Fuu then recruited Sayuri, Neji and Kagetsu before heading out to go retrieve Gaara. Right before they left they were confronted by 10 Sound ninja who stopped and then all put their hands on their heads almost as if they had… antlers?

They then saw that all of their shadows were connected to Shikamaru's who was previously playing possum. "You guys go on ahead and take care of the mission; it would be far too troublesome for me to also have to chase down my target so I'll keep these guys company."

The five ninja began to continue after Gaara leaving all the other ninja to their alliance.

Meanwhile back in the barrier Orochimaru was finishing his hand signs before slamming his left hand on the ground. Three caskets emerged from the ground with the kanji for 1, 2, and 4 on them. Hiruzen who knew what was inside the coffins tried his hardest to prevent the kanji with 4 on it from rising. It stopped thanks to the shuriken until it powered through and lifted all the way.

'Gracious deities… Is this the end?' Hiruzen thought as the three casket dropped

The first casket revealed Tsunade's grandfather, the first Hokage, Hashirama Senju. The second casket revealed her great uncle, the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju. But the last casket killed her on the inside; it was the Fourth Hokage, her only child that she abandoned, Minato Namikaze.

Meanwhile all of the other Kage as well as their gurads outside the barrier were speechless until the Raikage spoke up.

"What the hell is the meaning of this Hokage!?" A yelled

"This is Lord Tobirama's forbidden jutsu that could be used to bring the dead back to life and do the user's bidding." Hiruzen replied full of emotion at seeing his predecessors as well as his successor. "Orochimaru this time you've gone too far and I promise to rid you of this world if it's the last thing I do."

"Mina- Minato…" Tsunade started while unknowingly dropping the transformation

"Hiruzen? Is that you Tsunade?" Hashirama started

"Saru, you've grown old my boy, I take it you've got some more work to do…" Tobirama said looking back at the caster of his jutsu before looking at Tsunade. "Tsuna… you appear as if you've yet to age."

"What the? Why am I here? Jiraiya Sensei, Lord Sarutobi… Mother!" Minato exclaimed

Jiraiya's heart was breaking seeing that the boy he treated as his own couldn't even enjoy the afterlife. "Minato, you have to fight it my boy!" he exclaimed

"You all need to find a way to get out of here, we're practically invincible…" Minato explained to them while feeling the talisman being shoved into the back of his neck

All three bodies began to steam and gain color before Tobirama looked towards the group of 6 one more time. "Prepare yourselves Lords Raikage and Mizukage, I'll be attacking you."

Hashirama then spoke up "Hiruzen, Lord Tsuchikage, I can feel my wood style readying itself, please do not falter."

Minato finished "Mother, Jiraiya Sensei. You have to find a way to reverse this jutsu, I can feel myself slowly losing control."

And there ensued the battle between the previous Hokage against the Sannin along with the current Kage.

Meanwhile right near the entrance of the village stood five individuals, two who were wearing Akatsuki cloaks while the other three had on all black ninja clothing.

"Bring him to me, make sure he's still alive I feel it's time I finally met a certain blue-eyed boy" said the shorter of the Akatsuki members who had a slashed Leaf headband and bright blue eyes. The three ninja all scattered to the village while he walked away leaving the larger of the Akatsuki pair near the entrance. The man began to laugh before grabbing his sword and speaking. "Guess I should go and see whoever this Second Coming of the Monster is."

Naruto's group were now in looking view of the Sand siblings before Temari and Kankuro pulled back in hoping they could hold back the ninja long enough for Gaara to complete the mission.

Neji and Sayuri both stepped up and told the others to keep going. Sayuri placed her hand over the seal on her right wrist and unsealed a gunbai before smirking at Temari who scowled. Neji rushed one of Kankuro's puppets and began to battle the Sand ninja while Naruto, Fuu, and Kagetsu went around to go take care of Gaara.

Gaara wasn't able to get too far from his pursuers before they surrounded him. Although Gaara knew he was surrounded he was only interested in fighting Naruto and immediately let it be known by ejecting sand all around which hit Kagetsu and forced a flying Fuu to dodge and get hit by another ball of sand.

"Uzumaki, come and let me feed mother your blood so I can prove my existence!" Gaara yelled in a half-demonic voice.

' _ **Naruto, take this child out before he finishes his transformation…'**_ Kurama told his container

Naruto began by creating a gaggle of clones before they attempted to surround Gaara only to fail. Naruto then took out too fuma shuriken and enveloped them in wind chakra before throwing them in Gaara's direction while going through hand signs which multiplied the shuriken from 2 to 8. The eight wind coated fuma shuriken then cut off different pieces of sand belonging to Gaara causing him to scream in pain before Naruto shot him with a water jutsu.

Gaara then truly got erratic in his jutsu and fired them in any and every direction which made Naruto create another clone to protect the original from the sandstorm.

Naruto jumped high into the air and gathered purple lightning in the palm of his right hand before Fuu grabbed ahold of him and threw him at Gaara at blinding speeds. Naruto's hand plunged into Gaara's shoulder causing him to scream even more. Cursing to himself for missing he was about to take out a kunai to incapacitate Gaara until the sand wrapped around Naruto and slightly began to crush him until he was able to replace himself with a log covered in paper bombs that blew Gaara further away from the village.

"You're not even using its chakra! How are you so strong?" Gaara roared

"Easy, I have something dear to me I need to protect and you're not all too strong" Naruto said, lying at the last part in hope that Gaara would become more erratic.

Gaara howled before falling asleep surprising Naruto and Fuu.

' _What the hell? You usually charge your opponent after giving a war call like that…'_ Naruto thought

' _ **Quit watching him and strike that damned tanuki down now!**_ ' Kurama bellowed

' _He's already out of it Kur-'_

Naruto was interrupted from his thoughts as soon as he saw Gaara's body of sand grow even larger before Shukaku emerged with Gaara fast asleep at the crown of his head.

' _Awe crap, that's what you were talking about huh?'_ Naruto asked the inevitable

' _ **You fool! I declare your species as the most obtuse beings walking these lands!'**_ Kurama yelled _**'Quickly, make use of yourself and use that jutsu!'**_

' _Alright I'll use it but you better go back inside when I say so y'know. Jiraiya Sensei and Captain Yamato were scared as hell when I did that!'_

' _ **Hn, fine but hurry boy…'**_ Kurama agreed

Naruto lifted his shirt and pulled back the left sleeve on his undershirt which showed intricate seals that formed into a key while his stomach showed a large swirl that somewhat resembled a lock. Naruto mashed his fingertips on his stomach and turned to his right and opened the swirl on his stomach before slamming his other hand on the ground. A large cloud of smoke enveloped that part of the forest to reveal the Nine Tailed Fox in all of its-

" **I have returned in all of my glory you pitiful humans!"**

"I though you told me to take this serious?" Naruto asked with a deadpanned expression

" **That infantile tanuki could never envisage itself to my plateau!"** Kurama stated

"You are being so honest right n- you know what forget it. Can we take this 'infantile tanuki' out without killing Gaara?"

"Its simple child, while I deal with Shukaku you will wake up the medium on its crown and the boy will revert to his natural state." Kurama informed him

"You won't win this time Kurama, I'll show you why I was always Father's favorite!" roared Shukaku

"You lie! I was Old Man Sage's favorite; I have eight more tails than you ever will!" Yelled Kurama before taking off in Shukaku's direction

Kurama and Shukaku collided and Fuu watched on in astonishment at seeing the large beasts duel.

Kurama bit down on Shukaku and tossed him across the forest much to Naruto's annoyance

"Hold it still Kurama! I only need one shot at him!" Naruto yelled over the noise

" **Get up so I can put you down like the rabid raccoon you are you sand hurling mongrel!"** Kurama roared

' _Talk about a sibling rivalry, Kurama's never been this talkative…'_ Naruto thought

Kurama dodged projectiles of sand and wind before chomping down on Shukaku's shoulder which resulted in it screaming and separating them with even more sand but not before Naruto jumped off of Kurama's head and aiming for Gaara. Naruto was closing in on Gaara until he was intercepted by more sand until a surprise appearance by Sai cut through the sand and told Naruto to finish the mission to which Naruto decked Gaara right in between the eyes waking him up and pulling Shukaku back in.

Naruto and Gaara landed in another part of the forest before Naruto got up seeing Sai approach Gaara with his tanto.

"Sai leave him be! He's learned his lesson, trust me."

Sai looked at both jinchuriki before sheathing his tanto. Naruto placed his left hand back on the seal, calling for Kurama to come back inside which it did reluctantly.

"Gaara, instead of using your power to kill others, why don't you prove your existence by preserving the existence of those who you love and care for? You have an older sister whose heart is aching at seeing what you're doing, please consider it Gaara…"

Gaara was about to respond until his siblings along with Neji and Sayuri landed in the vicinity.

"No! Please don't kill Gaara! If you need a prisoner take me, just don't kill my brother!" Temari yelled much to said brother's surprise

With wide eyes, Gaara turned his attention from his sister to Naruto who was smiling. "Let them go guys, they've learned their lesson"

Reluctantly they all let the Sand siblings retreat but not before witnessing Gaara apologize to them all for his previous actions to which Naruto replied by saying that if Gaara ever needed assistance he could call on him since they were now friends, which earned him a swift left hand from Sayuri.

Naruto and the others were about to split up and look for Kagetsu, who had yet to return until they were encountered by a Sound ninja.

"There are more of you than I intended for there to be…Hand over the Uzumaki and I'll allow the rest of you to walk away with your lives." The ninja said before activating a curse mark on his chest

The ninja now resembled a dinosaur in appearance and charged the ninja who had yet to move before he was struck down with two quick blows he never saw coming from above.

A ninja garbed in a large black cloak with red clouds landed on the Sound ninja's neck before thrusting his sword into the ninja's neck and twisting it, killing him instantly.

'Akatsuki…their already moving, damn it' Naruto thought

Naruto quickly turned to Fuu. "Fuu get out of here now, this guy has a teammate hidden somewhere and he's after us for our tailed beasts!" Naruto yelled

The rogue Leaf Akatsuki turned his attention to Naruto and the other ninja before straightening up. In a move too quick for the others to track he easily disposed of all of the ninja around Naruto who jumped out of the way.

"Hmm, not only are you a quick thinker but you're quick on your feet as well…" the ninja said flashing his blue eyes towards Naruto. "I'd expect as much from my own grandson, however" he stopped before teleporting Naruto in another burst of speed before continuing "you still aren't fast enough" he finished before kicking Naruto out of the branch

Naruto was close to being knocked out from the single blow and was about to call on Kurama's chakra until the ninja was right above him.

"I expect you to be quicker on your feet next time Naruto, I will admit that I'm pretty impressed but I know you could do better my boy… Now remember this face and make sure you tell Tsunade I said hello and I'll be back." The ninja finished before knocking Naruto out

Back with the battle between the Kages Jiraiya found a way to get Minato to release the jutsu and Minato was currently using the _**Dead Demon Consuming Seal**_ on his predecessors who were happy that their village would remain safe once again.

Tsunade was beside herself and made sure not to turn around and watch her loved ones leave her again and had Orochimaru by his collar that was slightly beaten. She was getting ready to finish him off until he spoke up.

"Now, now Tsunade, don't you think it's time for you to go check on Naruto?"

"What the hell else have you planned Orochimaru?"

"It isn't my plan Tsunade…but his" Orochimaru said

"His? Who are you talking about Orochimaru!?"

"The man who is also responsible for Naruto's existence, our good old friend Hiruko…"

Tsunade's eyes widened before she sneered at her former teammate "Drop the barrier now Orochimaru!"

Orochimaru gave his ninja the signal to drop the barrier and Tsunade quickly left in search for her grandson.

 **That's Chapter 5; up next will be the end of the invasion as well as the truth behind Tsunade and Hiruko's relationship as well as the first main left turn in the story.**

 **I changed Hiruko's eyes from black to blue so Minato and Naruto would have a reason for having that eye color.**

 **I feel kind of bad about this chapter due to rushing and crap. By the way I know, I'm a little bitch, I still haven't built up the nerve to kill off one of the good guys, well besides Hayate, but he was supposed to be killed off from the beginning.**

 **It's not an excuse but I guess I should throw it out there that when I originally made this story Sasuke's character wasn't supposed to be a girl nor was Sai supposed to be an original member of Team Kakashi… Both Naruto and Sasuke were supposed to be prodigies with Sakura rivalling Shikamaru in intelligence as well but fuck it.**

 **Does anybody else read any of Narutoxsharingaxenthusiast 's work? Because that's probably my favorite author right now.**

 **How do Beta Readers work because I'm convinced I need one.**

 **Let me know how bad you think this rushed through chapter was.**


	6. One door closes

Well I hate to say it but this story will more than likely be uncompleted. If anyone wishes to adopt it feel free, however I will have another story coming out that centers around Squad 7 as well as an OC Shiomi Uchiha. For this story I would appreciate it if I had a beta, currently I have up to around the second Chunin Exams in my head. I also plan on doing a DBZ fanfiction that centers around Future Trunks as well as a Future Goten in an AU, I'd also enjoy having a beta for that story as well so please let me know if you're interested. Once again, sorry for ceasing this story, I can tell some of you liked it or believed that it had potential to be something great.

If it's any consolation (which I doubt it is), Naruto later goes on to confront Tsunade about the identity of his grandfather and she refused to go into detail about him besides stating that the man was his grandfather (in all actuality Tsunade had been a victim of rape). Fed up with her decision, Naruto later asks Jiraiya who claims to not know while he actually does but believes it's Tsunade's choice whether he should know about him or not. Naruto then leaves the village in search of Orochimaru, stating he'll tell Naruto what he wants to know as long as he provides Orochimaru with some of his DNA. Shortly after learning the truth Orochimaru and Naruto are under attack by Naruto's grandfather which leads to them having to escape together. A week later Jiraiya's spy picks up a tip about spotting Naruto w/ Orochimaru and he leads a manhunt for Orochimaru alongside I After coming across an Orochimaru lookalike(Mitsuki) , Jiraiya is warned to stay away from Orochimaru as he's in the middle of "possibly determining the future of the ninja world". Before he could question Mistuki, Jiraiya noticed he'd been placed under a subtle genjutsu and was later surrounded by Orochimaru's subordinates which threw him off Mitsuki's trail. Between relocating for the next 3 years and avoiding the Akatsuki, Orochimaru informs Naruto that they're going back to the Hidden Leaf so they can infiltrate the Uzumaki's Clan Mask Storage Temple so that Orochimaru can regain his arms. While closing in on their desired location they come across a female ANBU who turns out to be Sayuri. Upon noticing one another, Sayuri immediately attacks Naruto while Orochimaru goes inside the temple. Unknown to Naruto, Orochimaru left after gathering the mask needed for his jutsu as he believed the Hidden Leaf to be the better place for Naruto. (After spending so much time together, Naruto had worn off on Orochimaru) Naruto is then placed under arrest by Sayuri's ANBU squad and gets reacquainted w/ all of his comrades while imprisoned. Naruto learns that war may very well be on the way as the Hidden Mist and Hidden Rock have been behaving rather odd and believed them to be aware of the Hidden Leaf lacking the power of a jinchuriki. The village is then attacked by Pain, who's looking for Naruto and nearly captures him until he's saved by Itachi who holds Pain off long enough for Jiraiya to use the Dead Demon Consuming Seal on Pain's real body(Nagato). After Jiraiya's death Naruto goes on to learn how to use Sage Mode and later on confronts Kisame alongside Kakashi before the battle is interrupted by Naruto's grandfather. During their last fight, Naruto proves to possess a power superior to that of his grandfather's multiple stolen kekkei genkai but before he can rid the ninja world of him, Naruto must save Kakashi and leaves himself open only to be saved by Mitsuki. Steeling himself, Naruto goes on to kill his grandfather and is confronted by Madara(Obito) Uchiha, who just recently claimed war against the five hidden villages. The rest of the story from then on is more so the same except Naruto and Sayuri are able to prevent the resurrection of Kaguya Otsutsuki by sealing away the original Madara. Naruto and Sayuri later go on to get married a couple of years after the war and have 3 children who all possess both of their parents' power. Kakashi goes on to become the 6th Hokage for around 5 years before passing the title to Naruto, who originally questions if a rogue could be gifted the title Hokage but is told Kakashi put in a good word plus his actions in the war really helped him. Naruto then becomes the 7th Hokage for around 15 years before passing the title to Itachi's son(Shifuku) and it kind of fades out there w/ Naruto and Sayuri enjoying a relaxed life after retiring from the ninja life.

Don't know how good of a consolation that is for you guys but like I said there'll be another Naruto fanfic coming out as well as a DBZ fanfic. Most of it is already in my head but I'd still like a beta's assistance if possible. Thank you all for reading my story and giving me the courage to continue this. -ABNGG


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